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PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY, 

OB A 

PHILOSOPHICAL AND HISTORICAL 

DISSERTATION, 



THE ORIGIN, MANNERS, CUSTOMS, AND RELIGION OF THE DIFFERENT 

NATIONS, AND PEOPLE, OF ANTIQUITY; WITH A CLEAR AND 

CONCISE EXPOSITION, OF THE USAGES, AND OPINIONS 

COMMON AMONGST THEM; AND, IN PARTICULAR, 

OF THEIR RELIGIOUS RITES, CEREMONIES, 

AND superstitions: 

INTERSPERSED WITH 

A GREAT VARIETY OF OTHER USEFUL AND HIGHLY INTERESTING 

MATTER, WELL WORTHY THE PERUSAL OF ALL TRUE 

LOVERS OF HISTORICAL RESEARCH. 

TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL FRENCH MANU- 
SCRIPTS OF MONS R - LABBE BAZIN. 



BY HENRY WOOD GANDELL, 

^Qip.gQ^^f^HACADEMY, SUSSEX. 




When an old rrrnrimg tfijjffi narfrnnti policy uses it, as a bit, which 
the vulgar have put into their mouths, until some other superstition comes 
and supersedes it ; of which, policy will make the same use, as it did of 
the first error.— Page 306. 




LONDON : 
THOMAS NORTH, 62, PATERNOSTER-ROW 

1829. 



PREFACE 

BY THE TRANSLATOR. 



*Iy object in translating the following most ex- 
cellent work, has been to forward the cause of 
truth and simplicity ; and to dispel the mists and 
delusions, which hang over the human mind, on a 
perusal of the records of antiquity. I have been 
careful to adhere, as strictly as possible, to the 
language and sentiments of the learned author. 
The task was one which required no ordinary 
exertions, but I have been constantly animated by 
the reflection, that, to free the minds of men from 
superstition and enthusiasm, to correct error, to 
inform ignorance, to detect fraud, to combat 
priestcraft, and to rally false zeal, and false devo- 
tion, was certainly the noblest work, the sub- 
limest task, a man could be engaged in ; and I 
cannot refrain from expressing a firm belief, that 
a careful perusal of, and an attentive research 
into, the facts and incidents related in the follow- 
ing pages, will produce those noble results in the 
minds of every dispassionate and reflecting indi- 
vidual, who is alone anxious to promote the cause, 



IV PREFACE. 

the great and noble cause, of truth ; and who 
believes nothing, contrary to the honour and glory 
of a great, merciful, and Almighty Creator! 
moreover, who sanctions nothing, that reason 
points out as inconsistent with the ever great and 
glorious attributes of a Deity, who has never 
ceased, nor ever will cease, to be the Universal 
Parent, Father, Protector, and Defender of his 
creatures. 

The following enlightened and philosophical 
investigation into the origin, and real foundation, 
of some of the most formidable and astonishing 
narrations found in ancient history, and the 
easy and rational solution given to some of the 
most mysterious problems of Holy Writ, cannot 
fail of being highly gratifying and instructive to 
all. If I could for a moment conceive that, by a 
perusal of the following pages, the cause of virtue, 
and of true and genuine religion, would suffer in 
the estimation of a single individual, that moment 
I would consign the work to the flames! But 
shall I — can I — for an instant, cherish so pro- 
fane, and truly irreligious an idea, that the wor- 
ship of an Almighty God, of a truly great and 
glorious Being, whose goodness is manifested in 
every part of his creation, can be, in the least, 
weakened, or at all injured, by the dissipation of 
error and delusion? would it not be (blasphe- 
mous, I had almost said, but certainly) wicked 
in the extreme, to suppose that the cause of 



PREFACE. V 

truth, and the true and genuine worship of a 
great, just, and merciful God, could ever stand 
in need of such weak and insidious props to sup- 
port it? Props, that must, with time, sink into 
oblivion and decay, and, fall into such universal 
contempt, that were it not, that the whole crea- 
tion inspires the heart with true and genuine de- 
votion, and lifts it up unto God, one might, in- 
deed, fear, that the cause of the Creator might, 
for a time suffer, and religion fall to decay. But 
no ! Reason tells us that such can never be the 
case, for that, notwithstanding the false colour- 
ings given by those arch deceivers, Error and 
Delusion, to almost every incident related by the 
historians of antiquity, and to which the historians 
of modern times have given but too easy a cre- 
dence, yet, those staunch champions, Simplicity, 
and Truth, will prevail over every obstacle ; and 
then, with such props as these, (and who will 
presume to say that a God of Truth, Mercy, and 
Goodness requires any other ?) will the church be 
established on a basis which nothing can shake, 
or subvert ; — then will universal charity and 
benevolence prevail throughout the earth ; — then 
will appear uniformity of worship and opinion, 
the natural offspring of Simplicity and Truth. 
Such a state of things may well be termed, " the 
" reign of love and peace," — or, that " pure 
" Christianity" described by Christ as equivalent 
to all " law and prophecy," that is, we shall be- 



VI PREFACE. 

hold men loving their God with all their hearts, 
with all their souls, and with all their minds, and 
their neighbours as themselves. 

With respect to other matters referred to, and 
discoursed upon, in this work, they require no 
commentary from me: nor, do I think it at all 
necessary, to enter into any explanation respect- 
ing them. To them, therefore, I must respectfully 
beg to refer the reader : sincerely hoping, that he 
may derive, from the perusal, all the gratification 
and benefit he can possibly wish for, or desire. 
To conclude, that the general tendency of the 
work may be, to enlighten all my brethren and 
fellow-creatures, who may be wandering in the 
regions of " error and darkness," is the most 
ardent wish and fervent prayer of 



THE TRANSLATOR. 



Pulborough Academy, 
March 6th, 1829. 



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CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

Page 

Introductory Observations ----- 1 

CHAPTER II. 
i/Of the different Races or Kinds of Men 6 

CHAPTER III. 

Of the Antiquity of Nations - - - 12 

CHAPTER IV. 

On the Knowledge of the Soul - - 16 

CHAPTER V. 

Of the Religion of the First Men - 19 

CHAPTER VI. 

Of the Customs and Opinions common to almost all 

the Ancient Nations - - - 28 

CHAPTER VII. 

Of Savages - - - - - 34 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Of America - - 45 

CHAPTER IX. 

Of Theocracy, or Church Government - 50 



XIV CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XXXVII. 

Page 

Of the Mysteries of Ceres Eleusis, &c. - - 214 

CHAPTER XXXVIII. 
Of the Jews, when they began to be known - - 222 

CHAPTER XXXIX. 
Of the Jews in Egypt ------ 225 

CHAPTER XL. 
Of Moses, as Chief of a Nation - - - - 228 

CHAPTER XLI. 
Of the Jews, from Moses to Saul - 236 

CHAPTER XLII. 
Of the Jews, subsequent to Saul - 242 

CHAPTER XLIII. 
Of the Jewish Prophets ----- 252 

CHAPTER XLIV. 
Of the Prayers of the Jews - 263 

CHAPTER XLV. 
Of Flavius Josephus, the Jewish Historian - - 268 

CHAPTER XLVI. 

The Falsehoods of Josephus, concerning Alexander 

and the Jews ------ 274 

CHAPTER XLVII. 

Of Popular Errors and Prejudices, which the Sacred 
Writers have condescended to sanction, by their 
Admission or Example - 278 

CHAPTER XLVIII. 

Of Angels, Genii, and Devils, among the Nations 

of Antiquity, including the Jews - 286 

CHAPTER XLIX. 

An Inquiry, whether the Jews have been taught by, 

or been the Teachers of other Nations - - 297 



CONTENTS. XV 

CHAPTER L. 

Page 

Of the Romans ; the Commencement of theiv Em- 
pire ; their Religion ; and Toleration - - 30 1 

CHAPTER LI. 

Queries, concerning the Conquest of the Romans, 

and of their Decline and Fall - 307 

CHAPTER LII. 

Of the first People who wrote History, and of the 

fabulous Relations of the first Historians - 314 

CHAPTER LIII. 

Of those Legislators who have spoken in the Name 

of their Gods, &c. - 324 



ERRATUM. 

Page 176, line 6, for form, read from. 



THE 



PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY. 



CHAPTER I. 

INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. 

You would wish that philosophers had written 
Ancient History, because you are desirous of pe- 
rusing it philosophically. You have searched for 
useful facts, and you have found nothing, you say, 
but useless errors. Let us try to understand 
each other, and see whether it be not possible for 
us to discover some valuable materials among the 
rubbish of antiquity. 

We will begin by examining, if the earth 
which we inhabit, was, formerly, such as it is at 
present. 

It is possible that our world may have suffered 
as many changes, as states and kingdoms have 
experienced revolutions. 

B 



2 INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. 

It is an undoubted fact, that the sea formerly co- 
vered immense territories, upon which, we now see 
erected, large cities, and from which, the labourer 
now gathers, the rich and fruitful harvest. Those 
immense beds of shells which are found in Tou- 
raine, and in other places, can only have been de- 
posited there by the flux of the sea, for a long 
continuance of ages. Touraine, Brittany, Nor- 
mandy, and the adjacent countries, were a part of 
the ocean, for a much longer period than they 
have been a part of France and of Gaul. Can the 
moving sands of Northern Africa, and the coasts 
of Syria, bordering on Egypt, be any thing else 
than the sands left by the sea, on its gradual re- 
tirement from those countries ? Herodotus (who 
does not always romance) tells us, without doubt, 
a great truth, when he relates, that, according to 
the account given by the priests of Egypt, the 
Delta was not always land. And may we not say 
as much of those sandy countries situated near 
the Baltick Sea ? Do not the Cyclades, by the 
flats which surround them, by the vegetation 
which is easily perceptible beneath the waters 
which encircle them, bear sufficient evidence, that 
they once formed a part of the continent ? 

The straits of Sicily, that ancient gulf of Scylla 
and Charybdis, and which is still dangerous for 
small vessels, plainly indicate, that Sicily was for- 
merly joined to Apulia, as the Ancients have assert- 
ed. Mount Vesuvius, and Mount Etna, have the 



INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. 3 

same basis, as the sea which separates them. 
Vesuvius only began to be a dangerous volcano, 
when Etna ceased to be so ; and there is never 
an irruption of one, but when the other is quiet. 
A dreadful eruption destroyed that part of the 
mountain which joined Naples to Sicily. 

It is a fact, well known to all Europe, that the 
sea swallowed up the principal part of Friesland. 
It is not forty years ago, that we, ourselves, saw 
the spires and steeples of eighteen villages near 
Mordike, which were then perceptible above the 
water, but which have since yielded to the violence 
of the waves. It is unquestionable, that the sea 
frequently recedes (and that in no long space of 
time) from its ancient bounds. Let us look, for 
instance, at Aiguemorti, Frejus, and Ravenna, 
which formerly, were ports, but are now, no 
longer so. — Damietta, also, which, in the time of 
the Crusades, was the place of landing, is now, 
not less than ten miles within land ; and the sea 
is also, gradually, but perceptibly, retiring from 
Rosetta. 

Nature every where presents sufficient evidence 
of its revolutions ; and, if some of the stars have 
been lost in the immensity of space, — - if the 
seventh of the Pleiades has for a long time disap- 
peared, — and if other stars, in the Milky Way, 
have vanished from our sight, — ought we to be 
surprised, that our little globe, should, also, be 
subject to continual changes ? 
32 



4 INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. 

"We will not, however, venture to affirm that 
the sea has formed, or even approached near to, 
all the mountains of the earth. The beds of shells 
found near those mountains, may be the deposits 
of the testaceous inhabitants of some lakes, and 
those lakes having disappeared, on the occurrence 
of earthquakes, have become united, or been thrown 
into, other lakes, inferior in size. Ammon's 
Horns, starry and lenticular stones, petrified fish- 
teeth, &c. appear to us to be nothing more than 
earthy fossils. It has always appeared to us im- 
possible that these latter petrifactions can be the 
tongues of sea-dogs, and we agree with him, who 
has said, that we may as well believe that thou- 
sands of women had come to deposit their concas 
veneris on a particular coast, as that thousands 
of sea-dogs had come there to deposit their 
tongues. 

Let us beware how we blend doubt with cer- 
tainty, and falsehood with truth. We have abun- 
ant proofs of the great changes and revolutions 
which the world has undergone, without seeking 
for others. The greatest of all these revolutions 
would, certainly, be the disappearance of the 
western continent, — if it be true, that that part of 
the world, had been previously known to exist. 
It is, however, very probable, that that supposed 
continent, was nothing more than the island of 
Madeira, discovered, perhaps, by the Phoenicians, 
(the most bold and adventurous navigators of an- 



INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. 5 

tiquity), subsequently forgotten, and again disco- 
vered in the beginning of the fifteenth century of 
the Christian era. In short, it appears evident, 
by the sloping inclination of all those parts of the 
earth, bordering on, and washed by the sea ; — by 
those gulfs which have been formed by the irrup- 
tions of the sea; — and by those archipelagos, scat- 
tered here and there in the midst of the ocean, 
that the two hemispheres have lost more than 
two thousand leagues of land on one side, which 
have been regained by, and added to, the other. 



CHAPTER II. 

OF THE DIFFERENT RACES, OR KINDS, OF MEN. 

Nothing can be more interesting to us, than the 
sensible difference in the species of men, who 
people the four known quarters of the world. 

None, but those who are blind, can have any 
doubt, that the Whites, the Negroes, the Albinos, 
the Hottentots, the Laplanders, the Chinese, and 
the Americans, are altogether a different race, or 
genus, of man. 

No well-informed traveller, who has passed 
through Leyden, but has had the curiosity to in- 
spect the part of the reticulum mucosum, of a negro 
dissected by the celebrated Ruish. The whole of 
the remainder of this membrane is in the cabinet 
of curiosities at St. Petersburgh. It is black : and 
it is this which gives to the negroes, that inherent 
blackness, which they never lose, except in a state 
of severe illness, or disease ; which may so far 
injure, or weaken the texture of, this membrane, 
as to cause the escape of the fat, or mucus, en- 
closed therein ; the consequence of which, is, the 
appearance of white spots, or strokes, on various 



DIFFERENT RACES OF MEN. 7 

parts of their bodies. Their large round eyes, 
their broad flat noses, their thick coarse lips, their 
differently formed ears, and the measure, even, of 
their capacity, place them at an immense distance 
from every other race, or species, of man : and, 
what demonstrates, most clearly, that this differ- 
ence is not owing to their climate, is, that negroes 
and negresses transported to the coldest climates 
and countries of the earth, there produce beings, 
precisely of the same species ; and that Mulattoes 
are only a spurious race, the offspring of a black 
man and a white woman, or of a white man and a 
black woman ; similarly to asses, which, being 
specifically different from horses, engender mules 
by copulation with mares. 

The Albinos, are, indeed, but few in number, 
and very scarce ; they inhabit the middle of Africa. 
Their weakness does not permit them to wander 
far from the caverns in which they live ; neverthe- 
less, the negroes sometimes catch some of them ; 
of whom, curiosity prompts us to purchase them. 
We have seen two or three ourselves, and so, we 
dare say, have thousands of other Europeans. To 
pretend that they are white negroes, whose skins 
have been made white by some leprous disorder, 
is, in fact, the same, as saying, that the blacks 
themselves, are whites, whom an attack of leprosy 
has made black. An Albinos bears no greater re- 
semblance to a negro of the coast of Guinea, than 
he does to an Englishman, or a Spaniard. Their 



8 OF THE DIFFERENT RACES, 

whiteness is very different from ours ; — nothing 
of a flesh colour ; — no mixture of white and red ; — 
it is completely the colour of linen ; or, rather, of 
white wax. — Their hair, and their eye-brows, 
may be compared to the softest and most beautiful 
silk. — Their eyes do not, in any respect, resemble 
those of any other race of men, but they are very 
much like the eyes of a partridge. — They resem- 
ble the Laplanders, in point of shape; but a great 
dissimilarity exists, between them and every other 
people, with respect to their heads; their hair, 
eyes, and ears being altogether different : and 
they have nothing in them resembling man, but 
the stature of their bodies, and the faculty of 
speech and thought ; and the latter, in a degree, 
extremely remote from what we possess. 

The apron which nature has given to the Caffres, 
whose soft loose skin descends from the navel to 
the middle of the thighs ; — the black breasts of 
the women of Samoieda; — the beards which the 
men of our continent have, and the ever beardless 
chin of the Americans; are such marked and ex- 
traordinary distinctions, that it is impossible for us 
to believe otherwise, than that they are so many 
different species of beings. 

If it be asked, what is the origin of the Ameri- 
cans, and whence do they come ? Why not also 
inquire, whence the inhabitants of the southern 
countries, or Australia, have come ? To which we 
reply that the same Providence which placed men 



OR KINDS, OF MEN. 9 

in Norway, also fixed some in America and in the 
southern polar circle ; in like manner, as the same 
Providence has there planted trees and shrubs, 
and causes the grass to grow. 

Many learned men have been of opinion that 
some of the various species of men, or of animals 
approaching to, or resembling men, have perished. 
The Albinos are now so few in number, so weak, 
and so ill-treated by the negroes, that it is to be 
feared, that this race of beings, will, in a short time, 
be extinct. 

Satyrs are spoken of by almost all ancient au- 
thors. We do not conceive their existence to have 
been impossible. — In Calabria, even, at the pre- 
sent time, they stifle and suppress monsters, to 
which women have given birth. It is not impro- 
bable, that in warm countries, apes and monkeys 
may have subjugated, and had commerce with 
females. Herodotus, in his second book, says, 
that when travelling in Egypt, he saw a woman, 
having public commerce with a goat, in the pro- 
vince of Mendes ; and he appeals to all Egypt for 
the truth of his assertion. We observe also, that 
in the book of Leviticus, it is there forbidden to 
commit abomination, ( or have commerce ) with 
he and she goats. It is clear, therefore, that these 
horrid copulations were very common ; and, until 
we are better informed on the subject, we may 
reasonably presume that from such a detestable 
commerce, would spring a species of monsters. 



10 OF THE DIFFERENT RACES, 

But if they ever did exist, it is plain they were 
unable to change the course of human nature ; and, 
similar to mules, which do -not breed, they have 
not been able to pervert, or degenerate the other 
species. 

With respect to the duration of human life, ( if 
we except the list of the descendants of Adam, 
consecrated by the Jewish books ) it is probable 
that the duration of life, in all the various races and 
species of men, has been pretty much the same as 
it is at present ; in the same way that we see ani- 
mals, trees, and all the productions of nature, 
continue to exist for the same length of time. 

We ought, however, to observe, that as com- 
merce did not always convey the productions and 
diseases of other nations to the human species, and 
as men were more robust and industrious when 
they lived in all the simplicity of a rural life, for 
which nature designed them, they probably en- 
joyed a more regular state of health, and lived 
longer, than those who lead a life of luxury, and 
occupy themselves in the unhealthy trades of 
great cities; — that is to say, that if in Constan- 
tinople, Paris and London, one man in twenty 
thousand attains the age of a hundred years, it is 
probable that twenty men in twenty thousand, for- 
merly attained that age. Such was the case in 
several parts of America, where the human race 
lived in a state of pure nature. 

The plague, and the small pox, which, in the 



OR KINDS, OF MEN. 11 

course of time, the caravans of Arabia communi- 
cated to the> people of Asia and of Europe, were, 
for a long time, unknown. Thus, the human race 
in Asia, and in the beautiful climates of Europe, 
became much more numerous, than in other parts 
of the world. Casual diseases, and wounds, were 
not, to be sure, cured with such facility as at pre- 
sent ; but the advantage of never being attacked 
with the small pox and the plague, was an ample 
compensation for all the dangers to which our 
nature was subject; So that, considering all things, 
we can readily believe, that in favourable climates, 
the human species formerly lived longer, and en- 
joyed a healthier and happier state of existence, 
than since the establishment of great empires. 



12 



CHAPTER III. 

OF THE ANT1QI T ITY OF NATIONS. 

Almost all nations, but, in particular, the na- 
tions of Asia, reckon a series of ages which 
astonishes us. And the conformity which exists 
between them, ought to induce us to examine whe- 
ther their representations, respecting this anti- 
quity, be altogether destitute of truth, or proba- 
bility. 

/ Reflection will tell us, that an immense period 
of time must elapse, before a nation can become 
civilized, powerful and warlike, and learned. 
There were but two kingdoms in America, when 
discovered ; and, even in those two, the people 
had not invented the art of writing. — All the rest 
of that vast continent was divided, and still is, into 
numerous petty states ; to whom the arts are almost 
entirely unknown. The whole of these people 
live in huts; and, in the colder climates, they 
cover themselves with the skins of beasts ; while, 
in the warm and temperate parts, they go almost 
naked. Some live by the chase ; and others, feed 
themselves, principally, with roots, which they 



OF THE ANTIQUITY OF NATIONS. 13 

make into a kind of bread. They have never 
sought any other manner of life, because "people 
do not desire that with which they are unac- 
quainted." — Their industry has never carried 
them beyond the supply of their immediate wants. 
The Samoieds, the Laplanders, the inhabitants of 
the north of Siberia, and those of Kamschatka, are 
still less advanced than the people of America. 
And the greater part of the Negroes, and all the 
Caffres, are plunged in the same state of barbarous 
ignorance. 

A vast number of favourable circumstances, 
must, for ages, concur in forming a large society 
of men, united under one form of government, and 
the same laws. — Such a concurrence of circum- 
stances is even necessary to form a language. — 
Men would not articulate, if they were not taught 
to pronounce words ; they would only make a con- 
fused noise, and would make themselves under- 
stood by signs. — A child, for some time, speaks 
only from imitation ; and he would pronounce with 
great difficulty, if his first years were suffered to 
pass without being taught to speak. 

More time was perhaps necessary for those, who, 
(gifted with particular talents) first undertook to 
instruct others, in the rudiments of language, (rude 
and imperfect as they must have been) than was 
subsequently requisite for their association and 
establishment as a people. There are, even now, 



14 OF THE ANTIQUITY OF NATIONS. 

whole nations, who have never been able to form a 
language, and to articulate distinctly. Such are 
the Troglodites, according to Pliny. — Such are 
also those who live in some parts of the Cape of 
Good Hope, and on the coast of Guinea. But 
what an immense distance there is, from this bar- 
barous jargon, to the art of thinking, and express- 
ing our thoughts ! ! 

The brutal life which was, for a long time, led 
by mankind, must have tended greatly to diminish 
their number in all climates. Men could, with 
difficulty, supply their most pressing necessities : 
and, not understanding, they could not assist, each 
other. Wild beasts, which had more instinct than 
they, covered the earth ; and, no doubt, destroyed 
numbers of the human species. 

Men could only defend themselves against fe- 
rocious animals, by attacking them with large 
stones, and arming themselves with large branches 
of trees ; and, it is not improbable, that, from this 
circumstance, arose that confused notion of anti- 
quity, that the first heroes fought against lions and 
wild beasts with clubs. 

The most populous countries, were, without 
doubt, those which were situate in warm cli- 
mates ; where man easily found nourishment and 
subsistence, in corn, nuts, dates, figs and ananas, 
not omitting rice, which grows there without cul- 
tivation. Hence, it is very probable, that India, 



OF THE ANTIQUITY OF NATIONS. 15 

China, and the countries bordering on the Eu- 
phrates and Tigris, were very populous, when 
other regions were scarcely inhabited . —f- In our 
northern climates, on the contrary, there was a 
much greater probability of your meeting a com- 
pany of wolves, than a society of men. 



16 



CHAPTER IV. 

ON THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE SOUL. 

What were the notions entertained by the first 
inhabitants of the earth respecting the soul ? The 
same which all our peasants entertain of it, before 
they have heard the catechism ; and, even after 
they have heard it, they have but a confused idea 
of its meaning : and seldom or never reflect upon 
it. Nature had too much regard for them, to 
make metaphysicians of them : and this nature, is 
always, and everywhere, the same. It caused 
the first societies of men to feel, that there was 
some being, superior to man, on their experienc- 
ing any sudden or awful calamity. It made them 
also feel that there is a principle in man which 
acts and thinks. They did not distinguish this 
principle from that of life, or existence. 

By what degrees came man to imagine, that in 
our physical state of being, there was another state, 
termed metaphysical ? Most assuredly, men who 
were entirely occupied in providing for their 
wants, were not philosophers. 

In the course of time, there arose societies of 



ON THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE SOUL. 17 

men, somewhat civilized and polished ; among 
whom, a few might have had time for reflection. 
It happened, perhaps, that a man deeply affected 
with the loss pf his father, his brother, or his 
wife, may have seen in a dream the person whose 
loss he deplored. Two or three dreams of this 
kind were found sufficient to render a whole vil- 
lage uneasy. Here is a dead man who appears to 
those who are alive ; and, notwithstanding this, 
the dead man, half eaten by worms, continues al- 
ways in the same place. It must therefore be 
something that was in him, which appears in the 
air. It must be his soul, his shadow, his manes ; 
an aerial representation of himself. Such is the 
natural way of reasoning of all ignorant persons, 
who begin to think, or reflect. This opinion was 
common to all people, who lived in those remote 
times of ignorance and barbarism/ The idea of a 
being purely immaterial, never presented itself to 
the minds of those, who knew only that which 
was material. / Blacksmiths, carpenters, masons, 
and tillers of/he earth, were found necessary, and 
sprung up, no doubt, long before there appeared 
any individuals, who had, and would devote, suf- 
ficient time, to reflection and study. It cannot 
be questioned, that the manual arts had prece- 
dence, for ages, of metaphysicks. 

We may here remark that in the middle ages 
of Greece, in the time of Homer, the soul was 
considered as nothing but an aerial representation 



18 ON THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE SOUL. 

of the body. Ulysses saw in the infernal regions, 
shadows, manes ; he could not possibly see pure 
spirits. 

We will examine, hereafter, how the Greeks 
adopted the opinions of the Egyptians, respecting 
the infernal regions, (or hell,) and the Apotheosis 
of the dead ; and how they believed, (in common 
with other people,) a second state of existence, 
without suspecting the spirituality of the soul ; on 
the contrary, they could not possibly conceive, 
how, a being without a body, could experience 
good and evil. / And we do not know, whether 
Plato be not i\Le first, who ever spoke, or wrote, 
of a being purely spiritual. This is, perhaps, one 
of the greatest efforts of which the human mind is 
capable.! But we do not belong to those early 
times ; and we consider, that, as yet, the world is 
scarcely emerged from Chaos, and in but a rude 
and indigested state. 



CHAPTER V. 

OF THE RELIGION OF THE FIRST MEN. 

After a great number of ages had elapsed, and 
some union, or society, among men, had been es- 
tablished, we may reasonably suppose there was 
some kind of religion ; some sort of rude worship. 
Men, being then solely occupied and interested in 
making the necessary provision for their subsist- 
ence, did not raise their thoughts to the Author of 
their being ; they were insensible to the evidence 
which all parts of the universe bear of Him, and 
of those innumerable causes and effects, which, to 
enlightened minds, so clearly demonstrate an 
Eternal Architect. 

I The knowledge of God, the Creator, the Re- 
warder and Punisher of his creatures, is the fruit 
of cultivated reason, or of Revelation. 

All people therefore, were, for ages, what at 
the present day we find the inhabitants of several 
of the coasts of Southern Africa ; those, of nume- 
rous islands ; and one half of the Americans. 
These people have no idea of one God, the Cre- 
ator of all things, present in all places, existing in 

c 2 



20 OF THE RELIGION OF 

himself from all eternity. We ought not however 
to call them Atheists, in the ordinary sense of the 
word ; for they do not deny the Supreme Being, 
but they do not know him, nor have they the least 
idea of him. The Caffres adopt, as their pro- 
tector, an insect ; and the Negroes, a serpent. 
Among the Americans, some worship the moon ; 
others a tree. Many of them have, absolutely, no 
form of worship. 

The Peruvians, being somewhat civilized, wor- 
shipped the sun. Either Mango Capac made them 
believe that he was the son of that planet, or their 
dawning reason told them that they owed some 
gratitude to the planet which animates all nature. 

To know how, and in what manner, these dif- 
ferent forms of worship, (or rather superstitions,) 
were established, it appears to us necessary, to fol- 
low the march of the human mind, left and aban- 
doned to itself. The half-savage inhabitants of 
some small townior village, behold the destruction 
of the fruits on which they subsist : an inundation 
destroys some of their cabins ; a few others are 
destroyed by lightning. Who is it that has done 
them this injury ? It cannot be one of their coun- 
trymen, for all have equally suffered. It must, 
then, be some secret power, which has inflicted 
this punishment upon them ; and they must en- 
deavour to appease him. How are they to accom- 
plish it ? By acting towards him, as we would 
towards those whom we are desirous to please, by 



THE FIRST MEN. 21 

making him some little presents. There is a ser- 
pent in the neighbourhood ; it is very likely he 
that did the mischief. They bring him an offering 
of some milk, which they place near the cavern 
which he inhabits ; and from that time he becomes 
sacred ; his aid is invoked, when they are at war 
with a neighbouring town; the inhabitants of 
which have, probably, made choice of some other 
protector. 

Other colonies and plantations find themselves 
in a similar predicament. But, not having near 
them any object which excites either their dread 
or adoration, they generally give to the being whom 
they suspect to' have injured them, the name of 
master, lord, chief, or ruler. This idea, being 
most in conformity with the dawning powers of 
reason, (which increases and gathers strength with 
time,) remains fixed, and impressed on every mind, 
when the people become more numerous. Thus, 
we see that many nations have had no other god, 
than the master, the lord. Among the Phoeni- 
cians the name given to him was Adon'ai, and 
among the people of Syria, Baal, Milkom, and 
Adad. But all these names have one significa- 
tion — the Lord — the Almighty. 

It appears then, that in the course of time, each 
state, or people, had its tutelar divinity; without 
even knowing what was meant by a god ; or, with- 
out, in the least, suspecting, that the neighbour- 
ing state had not, as well as itself, a real protec- 



22 OF THE RELIGION OF 

tor. For how could they suppose, when they had 
a lord, that others had not one also ? It remained 
simply to be known, which, among so many mas- 
ters, lords, gods, &c. would prevail, when the 
nations were at war with each other./ Thence 
arose, no doubt, the opinion, so generally, and 
for such a length of time, entertained, that each 
people was really protected by the divinity which 
it had chosen. ' This idea had taken such deep 
root among m^n, that, for a very long time after, 
we see it adopted by the Jews themselves. Jeph- 
tha says to the Ammonites, "Do you not pos- 
sess, by right, what your god, Chemosh gave 
you ? Permit us then to take possession of the 
land which our God, Adon'ai, has promised to us." 
There are two other passages, not less expressive, 
to be found in the books of Jeremiah and Isaiah, 
where it is asked " What right had the Lord 
Melkom to seize the land of Gad ?" It is there- 
fore evident that the Jews, although servants of 
the lord Adon'ai, acknowledged, notwithstanding, 
the gods Melkom and Chemosh. 

We may go still further. Nothing was more 
common than the adoption of strange gods. The 
Greeks acknowledged the gods of the Egyptians ; 
perhaps not the ox Apis, and the dog Anubis, but 
certainly Ammon, and the twelve principal dei- 
ties. The Romans worshipped all the gods of the 
Greeks. We are assured by Jeremiah, Amos, and 
St. Stephen, that in the wilderness for the space 



THE FIRST MEN. 23 

of forty years, the Jews acknowledged only the 
lords, Moloch, Remphan, and Kium, and that they 
offered no sacrifice, nor presented any oblation to 
the lord, Adonai, whom they afterwards wor- 
shipped. It is true, that the Pentateuch speaks 
only of the golden calf, which is not mentioned 
by any of the prophets ; but this is not the place 
to clear up this great doubt : it suffices us to re- 
gard with equal reverence, Moses, Jeremiah, Amos, 
and St. Stephen, who appear to contradict each 
other, but whom they make to agree. 

We shall here merely remark, that with the 
exception of those times of war and sanguinary 
fanaticism, which extinguished every feeling of 
humanity, and which rendered the manners, laws, 
and religion of one people, objects of horror and 
disgust to another, no nation had any objection to 
its neighbours having their own particular deities, 
or to their frequent imitation of the worship and 
ceremonies of strangers. 

The ■ Jews themselves, notwithstanding their 
detestation of the rest of mankind, (which in- 
creased with time) imitated the Arabians and 
Egyptians in the rite of circumcision : and, like 
the latter people, even attached themselves to 
particular meats, adopted their ceremonies of 
ablutions, processions, sacred dances, the goat 
Hazael, and the red calf. They also frequently 
worshipped the Baal and Belphegor of their 
other neighbours ; so apt is nature and custom to 



24 OF THE RELIGION OF 

prevail, almost always, over established law ; par- 
ticularly, when that law is not universally known 
by the people. Thus, Jacob, the grandson of 
Abraham, did not scruple to marry two sisters, 
who were (what we call) idolaters, and the 
daughters of an idolatrous father. — Even Moses 
himself, married the daughter of an idolatrous 
priest of Midi an. 

These same Jews, who exclaimed so much 
against all other forms of worship, did not hesi- 
tate, in their sacred books, to denominate the 
idolatrous Nebuchadnezzar, " The anointed of the 
Lord," and the idolatrous Cyrus, also, was termed, 
" The Lord's anointed." One of their prophets 
was sent to the idolatrous city of Nineveh. Elisha 
granted permission to the idolatrous Naaman to 
go and worship in the temple of Rimmon. But 
let us anticipate nothing ; we know sufficiently, 
that men, in their customs and laws, are directly 
at variance with each other. Let us not depart 
from the subject on which we treat, but go on 
and inquire in what manner the different religions 
have become established. 

The most cultivated people of Asia, beyond the 
Euphrates, worshipped the stars. The Chaldeans, 
before the time of the first Zoroaster, paid their 
devotions to the sun ; as the Peruvians subse- 
quently did, in another hemisphere. It would 
appear that this error was very common to man, 
from its having had so many disciples, both in 



THE FIRST MEN. 25 

Asia and America. A small, and semi-barbarous 
nation, has but one protector. If it become more 
numerous, it increases the number of its gods. 
The Egyptians began by worshipping Isheth or 
Isis, and terminated by worshipping cats. The 
rustic Romans rendered their first homage to 
Mars : but, when they became masters of Europe, 
they worshipped the goddess of the act of mar- 
riage, and the god of privies. And nevertheless, 
Cicero, and all the philosophers, with the initiated, 
acknowledged one Supreme and Almighty God. 
They had all, by the aid of reason, arrived at that 
point, from which men in a savage state, had 
started, from pure instinct, f 

The apotheosis, or deification of the dead, could 
not have been contrived, or imagined, until a very 
long time after the first institutions of worship. 
It is not natural, at first, to make a god of a man, 
whom we have seen partaking of the same com- 
mon nature with ourselves ; subjected, like us, to 
disease, sorrow, the miseries incident to humanity, 
and experiencing the same humiliating wants and 
necessities ; and moreover, whom we have seen 
die, and become food for worms. But this is 
what happened in almost every nation, after the 
lapse of many ages . 

The man who had done some great actions, and 
rendered considerable service to the human race, 
could not in point of fact, be looked upon as a 
god, by those who had seen him tremble and 



26 OF THE RELIGION OF 

shake in a fever, and possess the infirmities com- 
mon to his nature. But enthusiasts persuaded 
themselves, that, having great and eminent quali- 
ties, he must have received them from some god ; 
and therefore, that he was the son of a god. In this 
way, the gods had children throughout the world ; 
for, without taking into account the reveries and 
deliriums of all the people who preceded the 
Greeks, were not Bacchus, Perseus, Hercules, 
Castor, and Pollux, the sons of the gods ? Ro- 
mulus was also the son of a god. Alexander was 
declared to be the son of a god in Egypt ; an in- 
dividual named Odin, among the northern nations, 
was reverenced as the son of a god, while Mango 
Capac was declared by the Peruvians to be the 
son of the sun. Abulgazi, the historian of the 
Moguls, relates that Alanku, one of the grand- 
mothers of Gengiscan, was pregnant with celestial 
rays. Gengiscan himself, passed for the son of a 
god ; and when Pope Innocent sent brother Asce- 
lin to Batoukan, the grandson of Gengis, this 
monk, not being able to obtain admittance with- 
out having recourse to one of the viziers, told him 
that he came from the vicar of God ; the minister 
replied, " Is this vicar ignorant of the reverence, 
" homage, and tribute, due to the son of God, the 
* great Batoukan, his master?" 

From the son of god, to a god, the distance is 
not great ; among those who delight in the marvel- 
lous. Only two or three generations are requisite, 



THE FIRST MEN. 27 

to enable the son to possess the dominions of his 
father ; thus, in the course of time, temples were 
erected in honor of all those whom they supposed 
to be the offspring of the gods, by the super- 
natural commerce they were declared to have had 
with our wives and daughters. 

We may write volumes on this subject ; but 
all these volumes may be reduced to two words, 
the ignorance and imbecility in which the mass 
of mankind was, for a long time plunged ; and 
probably, the most ignorant and imbecile of all, 
have been those, who have attempted to find a 
meaning to, and put a rational construction upon, 
those absurd fables ; and to mix up reason with 
folly. 



28 



CHAPTER VI. 

OF THE CUSTOMS AND OPINIONS COMMON TO 
ALMOST ALL THE ANCIENT NATIONS. 

Nature being every where the same, it is ra- 
tional and reasonable to suppose, that, in general, 
mankind have adopted the same truths, and the 
same errors, relative to those things which most 
forcibly assail the senses, and strike the imagina- 
tion. For instance, they would naturally attribute 
the noise and effects of thunder to the power of 
some superior being, living in the clouds. Their 
neighbours, who lived near the sea, observing the 
high tides to overflow their borders at the time of 
full moon, would, with as much reason, believe 
that the moon was the cause of every thing which 
happened at the time of her different phases. 

In their religious ceremonies, almost all people 
turned themselves towards the east, (not reflecting 
that there is neither east nor west) and rendered 
a kind of homage to the sun which they saw rising 
before their eyes. 

Amongst animals, the serpent would appear to 
them as gifted with superior intelligence ; because, 



CUSTOMS, ETC. OF ANCIENT NATIONS. 29 

observing that he sometimes shed his skin, they 
believed he could always maintain himself in 
youth and vigour, he was therefore declared to be 
immortal. Thus, in Egypt and Greece, a serpent 
was the symbol of immortality. Those large ser- 
pents which were found near fountains and springs, 
prevented those who were timid from approaching 
them. This soon gave rise to the idea that they 
were the guardians of treasures. Thus, a serpent 
guarded the golden apples of Hesperia; another 
watched over the golden fleece ; and in the mys- 
teries of Bacchus, a serpent is represented as 
guarding a bunch of golden grapes. 

The serpent had therefore the character of be- 
ing the most subtle and skilful of all animals ; and 
thence arose that ancient Indian fable, that " God 
" having created man, gave him a drug which in- 
'* sured to him a long and healthy life; that the 
" man loaded his ass with this divine present, but 
" the ass becoming thirsty on the road, the ser- 
«' pent directed him to a spring of water, and 
" appropriated the drug to his own use, whilst the 
" ass was drinking ; wherefore, man lost that im- 
" mortality by his negligence, which the serpent 
" acquired by his address." Hence, no doubt, 
the origin of the many stories we meet with, of 
serpents and asses. 

These serpents were very injurious ; but, as 
there was something divine in them, no one but a 
God could order them to be destroyed. Thus, the 



30 CUSTOMS AND OPINIONS OF 

great serpent Pithon was killed by Apollo : and 
the great serpent Opheonei made war against the 
gods, a long time before the Greeks had invented 
their Apollo. In one of the fragments of Phereci- 
dus it is related, that this fable of the great ser- 
pent, the enemy of the gods, was one of the most 
ancient in Phoenicia. 

We have already remarked, that dreams and 
visions were likely to introduce the same super- 
stitions throughout the earth. An individual finds 
himself very uneasy, during the evening, respect- 
ing the health of his wife, or his son, and during 
his sleep he beholds them dying; and, in fact, 
they die a few days after ; which result, produces 
a firm conviction in the mind of the individual, 
that the gods have revealed the melancholy truth 
to him in a dream. On the other hand, if his 
dream be not accomplished, it is a deception which 
the gods have practised on him. Thus, we see 
in Homer, that Jupiter sent a deceitful dream to 
Agamemnon, the Grecian chief. — All dreams, 
whether true or false, come from heaven. Ora- 
cles were established, in the same way, all over 
the world. 

A woman comes to ask the Magi if her husband 
will die in the course of the year — one will an- 
swer her — " Yes ;" the other — " No." — -It is cer- 
tain that one of them must be right. If the hus- 
band live, the woman holds her peace ; if he 
die, she proclaims every where that the magus 



THJE ANCIENT NATIONS. 31 

who foretold his death is a divine prophet. There 
quickly spring up in all countries, men who fore- 
tel the future, and reveal the most hidden things. 
These men are called Seers in Egypt, as Mane- 
thon recites, confirmed by Josephus, in his dis- 
course against Apion. There were Seers also in 
Chaldea and Syria. 

Every temple had its oracles. Those of Apollo 
obtained such great credit, that Rollin, in his An- 
cient History, quotes the oracles given by Apollo 
to Croesus. The god predicts that the king will 
have a turtle dressed in a copper baking-dish, and 
assures him that his reign will terminate when a 
mule shall sit on the throne of the Persians. 
Rollin does not examine whether these predictions 
(worthy of Nostradamus) were made after the 
acts themselves. He expresses his confidence in 
the science and knowledge of the priests of Apollo, 
and believes that God permitted Apollo to speak 
truth. — It was probably for the purpose of confirm- 
ing the Pagans in their religion. 

There is yet one question, the most philosophi- 
cal of all, and in which all the great and civilized 
nations, from India to Greece, have concurred : — 
It is, the origin of good and evil. 

The first theologians of every nation must have 
asked themselves the same question, which we all 
ask from the age of fifteen years ; — Why is there 
any evil upon earth ? 

It is taught in India that Adimo, the daughter 



32 CUSTOMS AND OPINIONS OF 

of Brama, brought forth just men through the 
navel on the right side, and unjust through that on 
the left ; and that it is from this left side that all 
moral and physical evil came. The Egyptians 
had their Typhon, who was the enemy of Osiris. 
The Persians were of opinion that Ariman pierced 
the egg which Oromasus had laid, and introduced 
sin into it. The Pandora of the Greeks is well 
known : it is the most beautiful of all the allego- 
ries which have been transmitted to us by anti- 
quity. 

The allegory of Job was certainly written in 
Arabic, since the Hebrew and Greek translations 
have preserved several Arabic terms. This book, 
which is of very great antiquity, represents Satan, 
(who is the Ariman of the Persians, and the Typhon 
of the Egyptians,) as walking to and fro in the 
earth, and \asking permission of the Lord to af- 
flict Job. Satan appeared subordinate to God ; 
but it follows that Satan is a very powerful being, 
capable of sending diseases upon the earth, and of 
destroying animals. 

It was found, in fact, that so many nations, 
without knowing it, agreed in their belief of two 
principles, that the whole of the then known 
world, was, in some respects, what is termed Ma- 
nichean. 

All people concurred in the admission of expi- 
ations, for where was the man who had not 
greatly sinned against his fellow- creatures ? And 



THE ANCIENT NATIONS. 33 

where was the man whose reason did not instinct- 
ively condemn him for such conduct ? Water 
cleanses the body and the clothes which we wear, 
and fire purifies metals : therefore, fire and water 
must of course tend to the purification of souls. 
Thus, there was no temple without its sacred fire 
and water. 

Men plunged themselves into the Ganges, the 
Indus, and the Euphrates, at the time of new 
moon, and at the eclipses. This immersion was 
for the expiation of sins ; and, if similar purifica- 
tions did not take place in the Nile, it was be- 
cause the crocodiles would have devoured the 
poor penitents. But the priests, who purified 
themselves for the people, immersed themselves 
in large tubs ; in which they also bathed the cri- 
minals, who came to ask pardon of the gods for 
their offences. 

The Greeks, in all their temples, had sacred 
baths, as well as sacred fires; esteemed, by all 
people, as the universal symbols of the purity of 
souls. In fine/superstition seems to have esta- 
blished itself among all nations, except among 
the literati and learned men of China./ 

( 



D 



34 



CHAPTER VII. 



OF SAVAGES. 



By Savages, are we to understand rustics, living 
in cottages with their wives, and a few animals ; 
continually exposed to the inclemency of the 
weather, acquainted only with the land from 
which they derive their subsistence, and the mar- 
ket where they sometimes go, to sell their wares 
and commodities, to enable them to purchase some 
coarse clothing for themselves ; speaking a kind 
of jargon, unintelligible in towns and cities ; 
having but few ideas, and consequently but little 
expression; subject, they know not why, to some 
chief, to whom they bring, every year, a half of 
what they obtain by the sweat of their brows ; as- 
sembling themselves together, on particular days, 
in a kind of barn, to assist in the celebration of 
ceremonies, far beyond their comprehension ; list- 
ening to a man differently clothed from them, and 
whom they do not understand ; sometimes leaving 
their cottages at the sound of a drum, and engag- 
ing to risk their own lives, and to take away the 



OB' SAVAGES. 35 

lives of their fellow-creatures, in a foreign country, 
and that, for one fourth part of what they could 
obtain by their labour, and remaining at home ? 
There are savages of this description in every part 
of Europe. It must, above all, be allowed, that 
the people of Canada, and the Caffres, whom we 
are pleased to call savages, are infinitely superior / 
to ours./ The Hurons, Algonquins, the Illinois. 
Caffres, and Hottentots, possess among themselves 
the art of manufacturing every thing they require; 
and, in this art, our rusticks are deficient, j The 
colonists of America and Africa are free, and our 
savages have not even the least idea of liberty. 

The supposed savages of America, are sovereigns, 
who receive ambassadors from our colonies, which 
avarice and levity have transplanted close to their ter- 
ritories. They possess those feelings of honour of 
which, our savages of Europe, have never heard 
speak. They have a country, and they love and de- 
fend it ; they make treaties, fight courageously, and 
often speak with an energy truly heroic. Plutarch, 
inhislives of great men, does not produce any thing 
more beautiful and heroic, than the answer which 
one of the Canadian chiefs returned to one of the 
nations of Europe, which had proposed to him the 
relinquishment of his patrimony, on certain terms 
and conditions. " We were born on this land,— 
" our fathers are buried here, — shall we say to the 
" bones of our fathers, Arise, and come with us 
" into a strange land ?" • 

d2 



36 OF SAVAGES. 

These Canadians may be looked upon as Spar- 
tans, when compared with those rusticks who ve- 
getate in our villages, and those Sibarites who 
enervate themselves in our towns and cities. 

Or, do you mean, by savages, animals with two 
feet ; in case of need, walking on their hands ; 
lonely, wandering in the forests, copulating by 
chance, forgetting the females to whom they have 
united themselves, knowing neither their children, 
nor their fathers ; living like brutes, without pos- 
sessing either the instinct or the resources of 
brutes? Some writers have asserted that such 
was the real state of man, and that we have but 
miserably degenerated since we quitted it. It is 
impossible to believe, that the isolated and solitary 
life ascribed to our forefathers, is at all consistent 
with human nature, If we are not mistaken, we 
are placed first in rank of those animals who live 
in flocks and herds, as bees, ants, beavers, geese, 
fowls, sheep, &c. If we should chance to meet a 
wandering or strayed bee, ought we to infer that 
that bee is in a state of pure nature, and that those 
who are labouring in the hive have degenerated ? 

Does not every animal possess that irresistible 
instinct, to whose power he is continually subject ? 
And what is this instinct, but the arrangement and 
contrivance of organs, whose action unfolds itself 
by time ?\ This instinct does not develope itself 
at first, because the organs have not acquired their 
plenitude — 



OF SAVAGES. 37 

** Their power is certain, their principle divine, 

" The child must grow before he can practise them ; 

" He knows them not, subject to the hand that rears him. — 

" The sparrow, at the first moment of his birth, 

" Without plumage, in his nest, feels he the power of love ? 

" The fox, when born, goes he in search of prey ? 

" The short-lived insects which spin us silk, 

" The buzzing swarms of those daughters of the sky 

" Which compound honey, and wax do petrify, 

" As soOn as hatched, do they begin their work? 

" All things increase by time, and ripen with age. 

" Each being has its destination, and at the time appointed, 

" Begins and completes the task by Heaven assigned." — 

In fact, do we not see that every animal, as well 
as all other beings, invariably executes the laws 
which nature has bestowed upon its species ? /*The 
bird builds its nest, and the stars fulfil their course, 
by one invariable principle. How has it happened \ 
that man alone has changed ? / If he had been ! 
destined to lead a solitary and wandering life, 
would it have been possible for him so far to sub- 
vert the laws of nature, as to live in society ? And 
on the contrary, if he were made to live in society, 
like the animals alluded to, could he, at the first, 
have so far perverted his destiny, as to live, for 
ages, in solitude ? Man is a perfectible being ; 
andJjL has been thence inferred, that he has de- 
generated. But, why not conclude that he has / 
arrived at that point of perfection, of which nature 
has defined the limits ? 

All men live in society ; can it thence be in- 
ferred that they led a different life in former times ? 



38 OF SAVAGES. 

May we not, with as much propriety, conclude, 
that if the bulls of the present day have horns, it is 
because they were not always provided with them ? 
/Man, generally speaking, has always been what 
he now is : that does not imply that he has always 
had fine towns and cities, twenty-four pound car- 
ronades, comic operas, and convents of religious 
women; but he has always had the same instinct 
which inclines him to delight within himself in the 
consort of his choice, in his children, and grand- 
children, and in all the works of his hands. This 
is a principle which never varies, from one end of 
the world to the other. / The basis of society hav- 
ing always existed, there must therefore have 
always been some society '.—whence, it may be 
inferred, that we were not made to live after the 
manner of bears and wild- beasts. 

Human beings have been sometimes found wan- 
dering in the woods, and living after the manner 
of brutes ; but sheep and geese have been found 
in a similar situation : that, however, does not ne- 
gative the fact, that sheep and geese were destined 
to live in flocks. 

There are Faquirs in India, who lead a solitary 
life, and load themselves with chains — Yes! and 
there can be no question that their motive for lead- 
ing such a life, is to excite the compassion and ad- 
miration of travellers, so far as to induce them to 
bestow their charity upon them. They, from a 
principle of vain-glorious fanaticism, do the same 



OF SAVAGES. 39 

as our beggars on the highway, who lame and 
wound themselves, for the purpose of exciting 
compassion. 

These excrements of human society, are only 
proofs, of how far the abuse of that society may 
be carried. 

It is very probable, that, for thousands of years, 
man led an agrestic kind of life, such as we still 
see led by an infinite number of peasants. But 
man could never have led the life of badgers and 
hares. 

By what laws, by what secret ties, by what in- 
stinct, could man have always lived in society, / 
without the assistance of the arts, and without 
having yet formed a language ? It is by his own 
proper nature ; by the taste and feeling which 
leads him to unite himself to some woman ; by the 
attachment which an Icelander, a Laplander, or a 
Hottentot, feels for his wife, when, beholding her 
in a state of pregnancy, he feels a hope of soon 
seeing, born of his blood, a being like himself; by 
the feeling of mutual necessity which exists be- 
tween this man and woman ; by the love with 
which nature inspires them for their offspring as 
soon as it is born ; by the authority which nature 
gives them over it ; by a constant feeling of love 
for it, and from the habit which the child neces- 
sarily acquires of obeying the father and mother ; 
by the assistance which the parents receive from 
the child as soon as it reaches the age of five or 



40 OF SAVAGES. 

six years ; by other children which the parents 
beget ; — and finally, it is, because, in a more ad- 
vanced age, they behold, with pleasure, their sons 
and daughters beget children also ; which have 
the same instinctive powers as their fathers and 
mothers. 

All this, it must be confessed, is an assemblage, 
or society of beings, in a very coarse and rude 
state. But do you think that the colliers in the 
forests of Germany, the inhabitants of the North, 
and a hundred petty nations in Africa, live in a 
state very different from this ? 

What language will these hordes of savages and 
barbarians speak ? They will no doubt be a very 
long time without speaking any. They will under- 
stand each other very well by exclamations and 
gestures. In this sense of the word, every nation 
has been, in some degree, savage : — that is to say, 
there were, for a long time, families or tribes, wan- 
dering in the forests, disputing their subsistence 
with other animals, and arming themselves against 
them with stones and large branches of trees ; 
living upon wild herbs and fruits of all sorts, and, 
eventually, upon the animals also. 

There is, in man, a mechanical instinct ; which 
we see producing, every day, the greatest effects ; 
even on men of the most gross and rude nature. 
There are machines invented by the inhabitants 
of the Tyrolean mountains, and the Vosques ; 
which have struck the learned men of the day, 



OF SAVAGES. 41 

with surprise and wonder. The most ignorant 
clown is every where acquainted with the means 
of moving the greatest burdens by the assistance 
of the lever ; without having the least idea that the 
power making the equilibrium, is to the weight, as 
the distance of the point of support to this weight, 
is to the distance of this same point of support, to 
the power. If it had been necessary for this 
knowledge to precede the use of levers, how many 
centuries would have elapsed before a large stone 
could have been moved from its place ! 

Propose to a dozen boys to leap over a ditch ; 
they will all mechanically take their leap, by first 
retiring a little backwards, and then running for- 
wards. They do not, assuredly, know that in 
such a case, their strength is the product of their 
weight multiplied by their velocity. 

/it is therefore proved that nature alone inspires 
us with useful ideas, which precede all our reflec- 
tions. It is the same with morality. We all of 
us possess two feelings which form the basis of 
society ; — commiseration and justice. If a child 
beholds his companion wounded and hurt, he ex- 
periences the most heart-rending anguish, and 
evinces it by his cries and tears ; he will also, if it 
be in his power, relieve him from his state of 
suffering. 

Ask an uneducated child who begins to think 
and speak, if the grain which a man has sown in 
his field belongs to him ? and if the robber who 



42 OF SAVAGES. 

has killed the proprietor thereof, has any legiti- 
mate right to this grain ? you will see whether the 
child will not answer you, similarly to all the le- 
gislators and law-givers in the world, under the 
same circumstances. 

/feod has given to us a principle of universal 
feeling, as he has given feathers to birds, and fur 
to bears ; and this principle is of so invariable a 
nature, that it subsists, notwithstanding all the 
passions which resist it; and in spite of all the 
tyrants who would drown it in blood, and of those 
impostors who would bury it beneath the rubbish 
of superstition. / It is this feeling, which, in the 
long run, enables the most ignorant people to form 
a tolerably correct opinion of the laws by which 
they are governed ; because they can feel and dis- 
cern whether these laws are in conformity with, 
or opposed to, those principles of commiseration 
and justice which are planted in their hearts. 

But, before we can arrive at the point of form- 
ing a numerous society, a people, or a nation, a 
language is necessary ; and this is the most diffi- 
cult part. Without the gift of imitation, this could 
never have been accomplished. Men, at first, no 
doubt, expressed their wants by cries and gesti- 
culations ; subsequently those among them who 
were the most ingenious, and born with the most 
flexible organs, would begin to form some kind of 
articulation, which their children would imitate. 
These children would, no doubt, find their mo- 



OF SAVAGES. 43 

thers among the first to assist them in their articu- 
lations. The commencement, or origin of all lan- 
guage, must have been composed of monosyllables, 
as being the most easy to express and retain. In 
fact, we see that the most ancient nations who have 
preserved any thing of their original language, still 
make use of monosyllables to express those things 
which are most common and familiar to our senses. 
Almost all the Chinese language, even at this time, 
is grounded in monosyllables. Examine the ancient 
Tuscan, and all the dialects of the North, you will 
perceive that hardly any thing in common use, or 
of necessity, is expressed by more than one arti- 
culation. Every thing is monosyllabic — zon — the 
sun ; — moun — the moon ; — ze — the sea \—flus — a 
river ; — man ; — hof — the head ; — bourn — a tree ; — 
drink; march; shlaf — to sleep, &c. It is with this 
brevity that people express themselves in the fo- 
rests of Gaul and Germany and throughout the 
North. The Greeks and Romans did not use words 
of more difficult composition, until a long time 
after they became of political consequence, as a 
people. 

But, by what sagacity have we been able to de- 
fine the variations of time ? In what way have we 
been enabled to express by different tenses and 
inflections, — -** I was willing — thou wast wil- 
'■' ling — I would or should be willing, or, I 
" should have been willing," &c. things positive 
and things conditional ? It can only have been 



44 OF SAVAGES. 

among the most civilized nations, that they have 
arrived in the course of time to the power of ex- 
pressing by words compounded, those secret ope- 
rations of the human mind. Thus, we find that 
among uncivilized and barbarous nations, there 
are only two or three tenses. The Hebrews ex- 
pressed themselves only by the present and the 
future. And, in fine, notwithstanding all the 
efforts and ingenuity of man, there is yet no lan- 
guage which approaches perfection. 



4f 



CHAPTER VIII. 



OF AMERICA. 



Will any one, in the present day, ask, whence 
came the men which have peopled America ? We 
may, with equal propriety, ask the same question 
with respect to the natives of Australia, or South- 
ern Asia. These countries are much more distant 
from the port whence Christopher Columbus sailed, 
than the Caribbee Islands. Men and animals have 
been found in every country which is inhabitable. 
Who has placed them there ? or rather, who can 
have placed them there, but the Great Creator of 
all things ? /Nor can it (or, at least, it ought not to) 
have been a subject of greater surprise, to find 
men in America, than flies. 

It is not a little amusing to observe that the Je- 
suit Lafiteau, in his preface to the " History of 
American Savages," maintains that " none but 
atheists can say that God created the Americans !" 

There are still extant, maps of the old world, in 
which America is delineated as " The Atlantic 
Isle." The Cape Verd Islands are marked as 
" the Gorgonas," and the Caribbee Islands as 



46 OF AMERICA. 

" the Hesperides." However, all this can only be 
founded on the ancient discovery of the Canary 
Isles, and probably of the Island of Madeira, whi- 
ther the Phoenicians and Carthaginians made voy- 
ages ; they are not far from Africa ; and perhaps 
they were not so distant from it in ancient times 
as at present. 

Let us leave father Lafiteau in the enjoyment of 
his opinion, that the natives of the Caribbees are 
descended from the Carians ; both, in consequence 
of the conformity in their names, and because the 
domestic habits of the Caribbee women are similar 
to those of the women of Caria. We will allow 
him also to suppose that the Caribbees are born 
red, and the negresses black, purely on account 
of the habit which their forefathers had, of painting 
themselves of a black and red colour. " It hap- 
" pened," says he, " that the negresses seeing 
" their husbands painted black, had their imagi- 
" nations so forcibly struck therewith, that their 
" race retained the colour for ever after." The 
same thing happened to the Caribbee women, who, 
by the same force of imagination, gave birth to 
children of a red colour. To strengthen his argu- 
ment, Lafiteau quotes the sheep of Jacob, which 
gave birth to speckled lambs, in consequence of 
Jacob's address, in placing before their eyes the 
branches of trees, with the bark partially stripped 
off ; these branches, appearing nearty of two co- 
lours, gave also two colours to the patriarch's 



OF AMERICA. 47 

lambs. But the Jesuit should remember that every 
thing which happened in the days of Jacob, does 
not happen in our time. To this, we may add, 
that if Laban's son-in-law had been asked, why 
his sheep, having the grass continually before 
their eyes, did not bring forth green lambs, he 
would have been rather puzzled to answer the 
question. 

Finally, Lafiteau represents the Americans as 
being descended from the ancient Greeks, and 
these are his reasons : — The Greeks had many 
fables, some of the Americans have some also. 
The early Greeks were fond of the chase, and so 
are the Americans. The Greeks of old had their 
oracles, and the Americans have their sorcerers. 
Dancing was customary at the Grecian festivals, 
and so also among the Americans. We are free 
to confess, that these reasons do not, to us, appear 
very convincing. 

We may here make a few remarks respecting 
the nations of the new world, which do not seem 
to have struck father Lafiteau. The people far 
distant from the Tropicks, have always been in- 
vincible ; whereas, those that are situated within, 
or near the Tropicks, have been, almost all, sub- 
jected to monarchical governments. It was thus, 
for a long time, with the people of our continent. 
But we do not find that the people of Canada 
ever attempted the subjugation of Mexico, as the 
Tartars spread themselves over Asia and Europe. 



48 OF AMERICA. 

It appears that the people of Canada were never 
sufficiently numerous to attempt the foundation of 
colonies in other parts. 

Generally speaking, it is not possible that Ame- 
rica could ever have been so populous as Europe 
and Asia ; it is covered with immense bogs and 
marshes which render the air very unhealthy ; the 
earth there produces a great number of vegetable 
poisons : arrows dipped in the juices of these poi- 
sonous herbs, inflict wounds which always prove 
mortal. | In fact, nature does not seem to have 
endued the Americans with that industry which 
distinguishes the inhabitants of the old world,. 
These causes united, must have tended greatly to 
diminish the population. 

Among all the physical observations which may 
be made respecting this fourth part of the world, 
so long unknown, the most remarkable, perhaps, 
is, that only one people can be found that have 
any beards. These are the Esquimaux. They 
inhabit the northern parts, in about the 52nd de- 
gree of latitude, where the cold is more severe than 
the 66th degree of latitude in our continent. The 
neighbouring people have no beards. Here then 
we see two distinct races of men living close by 
each other. 

Towards the Isthmus of Panama is the race of 
the Darians, a people somewhat similar to the Al- 
binos ; they shun the light, and live in caverns ; 
they are a feeble race, and consequently not very 
numerous. 



OF AMERICA. 49 

The American lion is cowardly and timorous ; 
but the sheep in that country are so large and 
strong that they are frequently employed in car- 
rying burdens. The rivers in America are ten 
times as large as ours. In fine, the natural pro- 
ductions of the earth, are not those of our hemi- 
sphere. Thus, every thing is varied ; and the same 
Providence which has produced the elephant, the 
rhinoceros, and negroes, has also produced in ano- 
ther quarter of the world, elks, contours, hogs, 
whose navels are on their backs, and men of a 
species altogether different from ours. 



50 



CHAPTER IX. 

OF THEOCRACY, OR CHURCH GOVERNMENT. 

It appears that most of the ancient nations were 
governed by a kind of Theocracy. If we begin 
with India, we find that the Bramins, for a long 
time, possessed almost sovereign power ; and, in 
Persia, the Magi possess the greatest authority. 
The history of " The Ears of Smerdis" may per- 
haps be a fable, but we may certainly deduce from 
it that one of the Magi sat on the throne of Cyrus. 
Many of the priests of Egypt, prescribed to the 
kings of that country how much they should eat 
and drink ; took charge of their infancy ; and sat 
in judgment upon them after their death. It was 
not uncommon for them to assume the sovereign 
power and authority. 

If we come down to the time of the Greeks, 
their history, fabulous as it is, ■informs us, that the 
prophet Calcas had sufficient power with the army, 
to sacrifice the daughter of the king of kings. 

Among those barbarous nations, existing at a 
time posterior to the Greeks, we find the Druids 
governing the Gauls, and other nations. 



OF THEOCRACY, ETC. 51 

It hardly seems possible, that in the first ages, 
any other kind of government, than a Theocracy, 
could have existed : for, as soon as a nation has 
made choice of a tutelary deity, this deity must 
have some priests. These priests rule over the 
minds of the people : they rule solely in the name 
of their god; they therefore, on all occasions, 
make him speak ; they proclaim his will by oracles ; 
and every thing is declared to be done by the ex- 
press command of God. 

This is the origin of all those sacrifices of human 
victims, which have disgraced almost every part 
of the world. What father or mother could act so 
contrary to every principle and feeling of nature, 
as to bring their son or daughter to the priest, to 
be sacrificed upon an altar, if they had not been 
previously convinced, that the god of the country 
commanded the sacrifice to be made ? 

Theocracy was not only for a long time predo- 
minant, but the tyranny, and horrible excesses of 
her government, were carried to as great extremes, 
as human madness and folly would permit ; and 
the more this government was declared to be 
divine, the more execrable it was. 

Almost every people have sacrificed children to 
their gods ; they must therefore have believed 
that they received this unnatural order from the 
mouth of the gods whom they worshipped. 

Among those people who have been improperly 
called civilized, the Chinese alone, appear not to 

e 2 



52 OF THEOCRACY, ETC. 

have practised these horrible absurdities. Of all 
the ancient states known, China is the only one, 
which has not been subjected to the priesthood ; 
for, the Japanese were subjected to the rule of the 
priests, six hundred years before our era. In al- 
most every other part, Theocracy has been so 
firmly established, and so deeply rooted, that our 
first histories are those of the gods themselves, 
who became incarnate, to preside and rule over 
the destinies of men. According to the people of 
Thebes and Memphis, the gods reigned 1200 years 
in Egypt. Brama became incarnate for the pur- 
pose of reigning in India ; and Samonocodom, at 
Siam. The god Adad governed Syria; the god- 
dess Cybele was sovereign of Phrygia ; Jupiter, of 
Crete ; and Saturn, of Greece and Italy. The 
same spirit prevails in all those fables. Every 
where a confused idea seems to have been preva- 
lent, that the gods, in former times, came upon 
earth, to govern men. 



53 



CHAPTER X. 



OF THE CHALDEANS. 



We think we may venture to assert that the Chal- 
deans, the Indians, and the Chinese, were the first 
of the ancient nations reduced to order and go- 
vernment. We can fix the era of Chaldean 
science, by referring to the 1903 years of celestial, 
or astronomical, observations, sent from Babylon, 
by Callisthenes, to the preceptor of Alexander. 
These astronomical tables come up exactly to the 
year 2234 before the Christian era. It is true that 
this epoch nearly corresponds to the time in which 
the Vulgate places the Deluge. But we do not 
mean to enter into the depths of the different chro- 
nologies of the Vulgate, the Samaritans, and the 
Septuagint, which we equally respect. The uni- 
versal deluge is a great miracle ; with which, our 
researches do not permit us to meddle. The argu- 
ments we shall make use of, shall be such as are 
consistent with reason and nature ; always submit- 
ting the feeble researches of our circumscribed 
mind, to the more enlightened ideas of a superior 
order of beings. 

* e 3 



54 OF THE CHALDEANS. 

Ancient authors, quoted by George le Sincelle, 
relate that in the reign of one of the Chaldean 
kings, named Xixotrou, or Xixoutrou, there 
was a great and terrible inundation. The Tigris 
and the Euphrates appear to have overflowed their 
banks much more than usual. But, the Chaldeans 
could only know, through the medium of Revela- 
tion, that a similar scourge had fallen on the whole 
habitable globe. 

It is clear that if the Chaldeans had existed only 
1 900 years before our era, that short space of time 
would not have sufficed for them to discover the 
true system of our universe : a degree of wisdom, 
not a little surprising, and to which the Chaldeans, 
had, at length, arrived. Aristarchus of Samos, 
informs us, that the Chaldean sages saw, clearly, 
how impossible it was for the earth to occupy 
the centre of the planetary world ; that they 
assigned to the sun his proper place in the uni- 
verse ; and described the earth, and the other 
planets, as performing their revolutions around 
him, each in its own orbit. 

/ The progress of the mind is so slow, — ocular 
illusions so powerful, and the subjection to re- 
ceived ideas so tyrannical and absolute, that it is 
impossible for a people who had existed only 1900 
years, to reach that high state of philosophical per- 
fection, which is directly opposed to ocular ap- 
pearances, and which it requires the most profound 
researches of theory to establish. Thus, the Chal- 



OF THE CHALDEANS. 55 

deans reckoned a period of four hundred and 
seventy thousand years ! — Still, this knowledge 
of the true system of the world, was known, in 
Chaldea, to only a small number of philosophers. 
This is the fate of all great truths ; and the Greeks, 
who came after, adopted only the common system, 
which is the system of children. 

Four hundred and seventy thousand years, 
seems a great deal to us that are but of yester- 
day ; but it may be considered as trifling for the 
whole universe. We know that it is impossible 
for us to adopt this calculation, — that Cicero ridi- 
cules it, — that it appears exorbitant, and that, 
above all, we ought to believe the Pentateuch, in 
preference to Sanchoniathon and Berosus ; but, 
we again repeat, that it is impossible, (humanly 
speaking) for men to arrive at the knowledge of 
such astonishing facts, in the short period of 1 900 
years. \i The first art is that of providing for our 
subsistence ; which was formerly much more dif- 
ficult for men, than for brutes. \ The second, is 
that of forming a language; which, it must be 
allowed, requires a very considerable space of 
time. The third, that of erecting a few huts ; and 
the fourth, to provide ourselves with some sort of 
clothing. — Subsequently, the forging of iron, and 
the manufacturing thereof, render necessary, so 
many fortuitous circumstances, such great indus- 
try, and such immense time, that we can hardly 
conceive how men have succeeded in accomplish- 



56 OF THE CHALDEANS. 

ing it. But, what an immense distance is this 
state of man, from the sublime science of as- 
tronomy ! 

For a long time, the Chaldeans engraved their 
observations, as well as their laws, on brick ; in 
hieroglyphics, which were speaking characters : a 
custom, in use among the Egyptians, after the 
lapse of many centuries. The art of transmitting 
the thoughts by alphabetical characters, could not 
have been a very early invention in that part of 
Asia. 

\ It may be reasonably supposed that at about the 
time the Chaldeans built towns and cities, they 
began to make use of the alphabet. In what way 
did they previously manage? it may be asked. 
In the same way that they manage in our native 
villages and towns, and in thousands of other towns 
and villages in the world, where scarcely any one 
knows how to read or write, and yet they under- 
stand each other very well ; and even the necessary 
arts are sometimes cultivated among them with 
genius. 

Babylon was, probably, a very ancient little 
town, before it became a superb and immensely 
large city. But who built this city? Was it Semi- 
ramis ? or, Belus ? or, was it Nabonassar ? We 
shall not pretend to determine : — but this we may 
say, — that there never was, in Asia, any woman 
named Semiramis, nor any man by the name of 
Belus. We may, with as great propriety, give to 



OF THE CHALDEANS. 57 

any of the Greek cities, the names of Armagnac 
and Abbeville. The Greeks, who changed all 
barbarous terminations into Greek words, per- 
verted, or misconstrued, all the Asiatick names. 
We beg also to observe, that the history of Semi- 
ramis, resembles, in all respects, the Eastern, or 
"Oriental Tales." 

Nabonassar, or rather Nabon-Assor, is, probably, 
the prince who embellished and fortified Babylon; 
and, eventually, made it so superb a city. — This 
prince, is a real monarch ; known, in Asia, by the 
era which bears his name. The commencement 
of this era, is incontestibly established as being 
1747 years before the beginning of ours : it is there- 
fore of modern date, when we consider the number 
of centuries necessary to the establishment of great 
and powerful dominions. It is evident even from 
the name of Babylon, that it existed a long time 
before the age of Nabonassar. It means the " City 
of Father Bel." — Bab, signifies Father, in the 
Chaldean language, as Herbelot himself acknow- 
ledges. — Bel is the name of the Lord. The people 
of the East never knew this city by any other name 
than Babel : the City of the Lord : the City of God : 
or, according to some, the Gate of God. 

There was no more a Ninus who founded Nin- 
vah, than there was a Belus who founded Babylon. 
No Asiatick prince ever bore a name ending in us. 

It is possible that the circumference of Babylon 
may have been twenty-four of our middling 



58 OF THE CHALDEANS. 

leagues; but that an individual named Ninus 
should have built on the Tigris, only forty leagues 
distant from Babylon, a city named Ninvah, (or 
as we call it Nineveh,) of an equally great extent, 
appears altogether incredible, f Three powerful 
empires are spoken of, as subsisting at the same 
time ; that of Babylon, that of Assyria or Nineveh, 
and that of Syria or Damascus.) It is a very im- 
probable thing. It is, in fact, the same as saying 
that there existed, in a part of Gaul, three pow- 
erful empires, whose capitals, Paris, Soissons, and 
Orleans, have each a circumference of twenty-four 
leagues. Besides, Nineveh was not built, or at 
least was of very little importance, at the time 
when the prophet Jonas, was, (as it is said,) de- 
puted to go and exhort the inhabitants to repent- 
ance ; and was swallowed up, on the way, by a 
fish, which kept him three days and three nights 
in its stomach. 

The pretended empire of Assyria was not even 
in existence in the days of Jonas ; for, it is said, 
that he prophesied under the petty Jewish king 
Joash ; and Phul, or Pul, who in the Hebrew 
books is styled as the first king of Assyria, did not, 
(according to their account,) begin his reign until 
upwards of fifty-two years after the death of Joash. 
It is thus, that, by comparing dates, we find, every 
where, so much contradiction, and we therefore 
still remain in uncertainty. 

It is said in the book of Jonas, that there were 



OF THE CHALDEANS. 59 

in Nineveh, a hundred and twenty- thou sand new- 
ly born infants ; this would require a population 
of upwards of five millions; according to the cal- 
culation which we have made, (and which we 
believe to be tolerably correct,) founded on the 
number of living children born in the same year. — 
Now five millions of inhabitants in a city not yet 
built, is a circumstance rather strange and un- 
common ! 

/ We confess that we cannot comprehend any 
thing of the two empires of Babylon and Assyria. — 
Several of our learned men have attempted to 
throw some light on this mysterious subject, and 
have affirmed that Chaldea and Syria were but 
one and the same empire, governed, sometimes, 
by two princes, the one resident at Babylon, and 
the other at Nineveh; and this rational opinion 
may be adopted, until one still more rational, can 
be found. 

That which contributes to throw an air of great 
probability on the antiquity of this nation, is the 
celebrated tower, built expressly to observe the 
motion of the stars : or, as we would say, for an 
observatory. Nearly the whole of our commenta- 
tors, not being able to dispute the existence of this 
monument, have ventured to give it as their opinion, 
that it was a remnant, of the Tower of Babel, which 
men wished to build up to Heaven. — We do not 
exactly understand what these commentators 
mean by Heaven ; is it the moon ? or, the planet 



60 OF THE CHALDEANS. 

Venus ? both these are somewhat distant from 
heaven ! 

Be that as it may, if Nabonassar erected this 
building for an observatory, we are, at least, com- 
pelled to acknowledge, that the Chaldeans had an 
observatory more than two thousand four hundred 
years before we had one. We may subsequently 
reflect, how many centuries the slow and gradual 
progress of the human mind would require, to ar- 
rive at that degree of knowledge, which would lead 
men to erect such a monument as this, to the 
sciences. 

It was in Chaldea, and not in Egypt, that the 
Zodiac was invented. There are three tolerably 
strong proofs of this fact. The first is, that the 
Chaldeans were an enlightened nation, before 
Egypt (continually inundated by the Nile,) could 
have been inhabited ; the second is, that the signs 
of the Zodiac correspond to the climate of Mesopo- 
tamia, and not that of Egypt. The Egyptians 
could not have the sign Taurus, or the Bull, in the 
month of April, for it is not in that season they 
till the ground ; nor, in the month which we call 
August, would they set forth a girl carrying ears 
of corn, because it is not at this period they carry 
their harvest : neither would they represent the 
month of February by a pitcher of water, for it 
rains very rarely in Egypt, and never in the months 
of January and February. The third reason is, 
that the ancient signs of the Chaldean Zodiac were 



OF THE CHALDEANS. 61 

one of the articles of their religion. They were 
under the government of twelve secondary deities ; 
twelve mediatory gods : each of which^ presided 
in his respective constellation; as we are informed 
in the second book of Diodorus Siculus. The re- 
ligion of the ancient Chaldeans was Sabaism, that 
is to say, the worship of one Supreme God, and a 
veneration of the stars, and of those celestial spirits 
which presided over the stars. When they pray- 
ed, they turned themselves towards the north star : 
so closely was their worship in unison with as- 
tronomy. 

Vitruvius, in his ninth book, treating of sun- 
dials, the heights of the sun, the length of sha- 
dows, and of the light reflected by the moon, 
always quotes the ancient Chaldees, and never 
the Egyptians. — This is a sufficiently strong proof 
that Chaldea, and not Egypt, was looked upon as 
the cradle of that science ; so that nothing can be 
more true than the old Latin proverb ; 

" Tradidit Egyptis Babylon, iEgyptusAchivis." 



62 



CHAPTER XL 



OF THE BABYLONIANS, SUBSEQUENTLY PER- 
SIANS. 



To the east of Babylon were situated the Per- 
sians. They carried their arms and their religion 
into Babylon, when Koresh, whom we call 
Cyrus, took that city, assisted by the Medes, 
whose country lay to the north of Persia. 
We are favoured with two remarkable fables re- 
specting Cyrus ; the one by Herodotus, and the 
other by Zenophon, who contradict each other in 
every thing, but whom a thousand writers have 
copied indiscriminately. 

Herodotus supposes a king of Media, that is, a 
king of Hyrcania, whom he calls Astyages, from 
the Greek. This Hyrcanian, Astyages, orders 
his grandson, Cyrus, then in the cradle, to be 
drowned ; because he saw in a dream, his daugh- 
ter Mandane, the mother of Cyrus, " p — ss so 
copiously as to inundate all Asia." The rest of 
the story runs pretty much in the same strain. It 
is the history of Garagantua written seriously. 



OF THE BABYLONIANS. 63 

Zenophon turns the life of Cyrus into a moral 
romance, something similar to the adventures of 
Telemachus. In order to give you a just idea of 
the manly and vigorous education and habits of 
his hero, he begins, by alledging that the Medes 
were a licentious people, immersed in luxury and 
effeminacy. The inhabitants of Hyrcania (whom 
the Tartars then called Scythians) had ravaged 
the country around them for thirty years : and 
were they Sibarites ? Were they effeminate ? 

All that can be said, with certainty of Cyrus, 
is, that he was a great conqueror, and, conse- 
quently, a -scourge of the earth. The founda- 
tion of his history is true ; the episodes are fabu- 
lous ; as is the case with most historical relations. 

Rome existed in the time of Cyrus ; she had a 
territory of four or five leagues, and took every 
opportunity of plundering her neighbours ; but 
who can vouch for the truth of the combat of 
the Horatii, the affair of Lucretia, the heaven-de- 
scended bucklers, and the stone cut with a razor? 
There were a few Jewish slaves in Babylon and 
elsewhere ; but, humanly speaking, it may be 
doubted, whether the angel Raphael came down 
from heaven to conduct the young Tobit, on foot, 
into Hyrcania ; in order to compel the payment of 
a sum of money, and to drive out the devil 
Asmodeus with the smoke of a pike's liver. 

We shall be cautious in our examination of the 
romances both of Herodotus and Zenophon, con- 



64 OF THE BABYLONIANS. 

cerning the life and death of Cyrus. We may 
here, however, just remark, that the Parsians, or 
Persians, pretended to have had among them, 
six thousand years previously, an ancient prophet 
named Zerdust, who taught them to be just and 
upright, and to reverence the sun, as the an- 
cient Chaldeans had reverenced the stars, by 
observing them. 

We shall not venture to affirm that these Per- 
sians, and these Chaldeans, were so very just, or 
to define particularly, the period when their se- 
cond Zerdust made his appearance, who rectified 
the error of worshipping the sun, and taught them 
to worship God only * the creator of the sun, and 
of the stars. It is said that he either wrote, or 
commented upon, the book of Zend, which the 
Persians of the present day, (dispersed throughout 
Asia,) reverence as their Bible. This book is 
probably the oldest in the world ; next to that of 
the " Five Kings of the Chinese :" it is written 
in the ancient sacred Chaldean tongue : and Mr. 
Hide, who has furnished us with a translation of 
Sadder, would also have procured for us a copy of 
the Zend, if he had had it in his power to pay the 
expence of such a research. We can refer, how- 
ever, to the Sadder, where we meet with the 
Persian Catechism, as extracted from the Zend. 
\ We there observe, that these Persians, had, for a 
long time, believed in a god ; a devil ; a resurrec- 
tion ; a paradise, or heaven ; and a hell. They 



SUBSEQUENTLY PERSIANS. 65 

are, beyond all contradiction, the first who esta- 
blished these opinions : it is the most ancient 
system of any ; and was not adopted by other na- 
tions, until a great many centuries afterwards ; 
for, it is well known, that the Pharisees among 
the Jews, did not openly maintain the doctrine of 
the immortality of the soul, and of rewards and 
punishments after death, until about the time of 
Herod. 

This, perhaps, is the most important point in 
the Ancient History of the world. Here, we have 
a useful religion ; founded on the immortality of 
the soul, and the knowledge of an Almighty Crea- 
tor. / Let us never cease to remark, through how 
many degrees the human mind must travel, and 
what astonishing advances it must make, previous 
to the conception of such a system !\ fit should 
also be remarked that baptism, and immersion in 
water, for the purification of the soul, through the 
body, is one of the precepts of the Zend.* Thus 
then, it appears, that the whole of our rites and 
ceremonies, have travelled from among the Per- 
sians and Chaldeans, with whom they originated, 
to the farthest extremities of the West. \ 

It is not our business, here to inquire, why, and 
wherefore, the Babylonians had secondary deities ; 
while they acknowledged a Sovereign God of all. 
This system, or rather this chaos, was the same in 

* Page 251. 



66 OF THE BABYLONIANS, 

all nations ; China only, excepted. We find, 
almost every where, a great deal of folly, mixed 
with but little wisdom, in the laws, worship, and 
customs, of the people, i Instinct, more than 
reason, guides the human[ race, \ We behold, in 
all parts, a Divinity worshipped, and yet dishonour- 
ed. The Persians reverenced statues, as soon as 
they had any celebrated sculptors ; a strong evi- 
dence of this exists in the ruins of Persepolis : 
but yet in those very figures, we behold the sym- 
bols of immortality ; the heads of beings flying 
to heaven with wings ; the symbols of emigration, 
from a transient, to an immortal life. 

We come now to notice those customs which 
are purely human. It is astonishing that Herodo- 
tus, in his first book, should say, before all Greece, 
that all the Babylonians were obliged, by the 
law, to prostitute themselves to strangers, at least 
once in their life- time, in the temple of Melita, or 
Venus. It is still more astonishing that in all 
those historical compositions for the instruction of 
youth, this story should be repeated. Truly, it 
must be a most extraordinary festival, and a sin- 
gular sort of devotion, to see running into a church 
camel-merchants, and dealers in horses, oxen, and 
asses, and to see them descend from their beasts, 
in order to have commerce before the altar, with 
the chief women of the city. In good faith, let us 
ask, if it be possible, for such an infamous practice 
ever to have existed at all ? much less, that it 



SUBSEQUENTLY PERSIANS. 67 

should form a part, in the character of a civilized 
people ! Is it possible that the magistrates of one 
of the greatest cities in the world, could have esta- 
blished, or countenanced, such an abominable cus- 
tom? What ! would husbands consent to prostitute 
their wives, and parents their daughters, to all the 
grooms, stable-boys, and riff-raffof Asia? |That which 
is impossible to nature, cannot possibly be true. \ 
We could as readily believe what Dion Cassius tells 
us, that the grave senators of Rome proposed a de- 
cree, by which Caesar, who was 57 years old, should 
be allowed the privilege of a free intercourse, with 
whatever women he chose to select for that honour. 
Those, who in the present day, undertake to 
compile Ancient History, and who copy so many 
authors without examining any, ought to have 
seen that Herodotus was either relating fables, or 
that his text was corrupted, and that he only 
meant to speak of those courtesans who are to be 
met with in all large cities, and who even fre- 
quently waited for travellers on the road. 

Neither is it possible to give credit to what 
Sextus Empiric us tells us ; that, among the Per- 
sians, the vile and unnatural crime of Sodomy, 
was ordained and encouraged. How ! Is it pos- 
sible to believe that men would make a law, 
which, if carried into effect, would destroy the 
race of man ? On the contrary, this most detest- 
able practice is expressly forbidden in the book of 
Zend, and also in an abridgment of the Sadder, 

f 2 



68 OF THE BABYLONIANS. 

where it is said " that there cannot be a greater 
sin." 

Again : Strabo asserts that the Persians married 
their mothers ! But what are his proofs ? Mere 
hearsay, — vague and idle rumours. This may 
have given rise to an epigram of Catullus, " Nam 
" magus ex matre, et nato nascatur oportet." 
The Magi must be all the offspring of an incestu- 
ous intercourse between the mother and son. 
Such a law, is by no means credible ; nor is an 
epigram any proof of its existence. So then ! if 
no mothers had been found willing to consummate 
this unnatural commerce with their sons, the Per- 
sians would have had no priests ! The religion of 
the Magi, whose great object was to increase the 
population, would have induced them to allow, in 
preference, the intercourse of fathers with their 
daughters, than sons with their mothers, since 
an old man may beget children, and an aged wo- 
man has not that advantage. 

To be brief, in our perusal of all History, let us 
be on our guard against all fabulous, and would- 
be marvellous, representations. 



69 



CHAPTER XII. 



OF SYRIA. 



All existing monuments testify, that the country 
which extends from Alexandretta, or Scanderoon, 
nearly to Bagdat, was always called Syria ; that 
the alphabet of the people was always Syriack ; 
and that in this country were situated the ancient 
cities of Zobah, Balbec, and Damascus, and sub- 
sequently those of Antioch, Seleucia, and Pal- 
myra. Balk was so ancient that the Persians 
represented their Bram, or Abraham, as coming 
from Balk into their country. What then 
becomes of the powerful empire of Assyria, 
of which so much has been said? We can 
find no place for it, but in the country of 
romance. 

The Gauls sometimes extended their dominions 
as far as the Rhine, and were sometimes more 
confined ; but who ever thought of placing a vast 
empire between the Rhine and the Gauls ? That 
the nations bordering on the Euphrates, may have 
been called Assyrians, when they extended them- 



70 OF SYRIA. 

selves as far as Damascus ; and that the people of 
Syria may have been called Assyrians, when they 
approached as far as the Euphrates, is not impos- 
sible : and this appears the only solution to the 
problem. — All the neighbouring people had be- 
come mixed ; all had been involved in war, and 
had changed their boundaries. But when once 
capital cities are erected, these cities establish 
a marked and decided distinction between two 
nations. Thus, the Babylonians, whether con- 
querors or conquered, were always a different 
people from those of Syria. The ancient charac- 
ters of the Syriack language, were never those of 
the ancient Chaldeans. Their form of worship, — 
their superstitions, — their laws (whether good or 
bad), — and their ridiculous and fantastic customs, 
were in no respect the same. The goddess of 
Syria, (so very ancient,) had no affinity what- 
ever, with the worship of the Chaldeans. The 
Chaldean sages, or magi, as well as those of 
the Babylonians, and Persians, never made 
themselves eunuchs, after the manner of the 
priests of the goddess of Syria. A most singu- 
lar thing! — that the Syrians should pay their 
devotions to the figure which we call Priapus, 
and that their priests should deprive themselves 
of their virility. 

This renouncement of the powers of generation, 
is a proof of great antiquity, and a numerous 
population. It is not probable that any thing, 



OF SYRIA. 71 

so contrary to nature, would have been either 
allowed, or practised, in a country but thinly 
populated. 

The priests of the goddess Cybele, in Phrygia, 
also made themselves eunuchs, like those of Syria. 
— There can be but little doubt, that this practice 
was the result of an ancient custom among men, 
to sacrifice to the gods whatever was most dear to 
them ; and not expose themselves to the commis- 
sion of what was considered an impurity, before 
beings whom they believed to be pure. After 
such sacrifices as these, need we be astonished at 
that of the foreskin, which prevailed among many 
other people ? and of the amputation of one tes- 
ticle, as practised by some African nations ? The 
stories of Atis and Combalus are but fables, like 
that of Jupiter, who made a eunuch of his father 
Saturn. Superstition engenders the most ridi- 
culous customs ; and the spirit of romance en- 
deavours to account for them, by reasons, equally 
ridiculous and absurd. 

We shall only add, respecting the ancient Sy- 
rians, that the city, subsequently known as the 
holy city, and to which the Greeks gave the name 
of Hierapolis, was called by the Syrians, Magog. 
The word Mag has great affinity to the ancient 
Magi ; it seems common among all those, whom, 
in these climates, were consecrated to the service 
of the divinity. Almost every people had a holy 
city. We know that Thebes, in Egypt, was 



72 OF SYRIA. 

called the city of God. Apamea, in Phrygia, was 
also named the city of God. 

The Hebrews, a long time after, speak of the 
people of Gog and Magog; they may possibly 
mean, by these terms, the people of the Eu- 
phrates, and of the Orontes. They may also 
mean the Scythians, who ravaged Asia before the 
time of Cyrus, and laid waste Phoenicia. But it 
signifies very little, what import the Jews attached 
to the names Gog and Magog. 

Finally, there can be no question, but that 
the Syrians are of much greater antiquity than 
the Egyptians : for this plain reason, — that 
those countries which are the most easily cul- 
tivated, are, necessarily, the first peopled ; and, 
become prosperous and flourishing, the first. 



73 



CHAPTER XIII. 

OF THE PHOENICIANS ; AND OF 8ANCHO- 
NIATHON. 

It is probable that the Phoenicians were estab- 
lished as a people, as early as the other inhabit- 
ants of Syria. They may not be quite so ancient 
as the Chaldeans, because their country is not 
so fruitful. Sidon, Tyre, Joppa, Berith, and As- 
calon, are by no means fertile soils. Maritime 
commerce has always been the last resource of a 
people. The earth must be cultivated, before 
ships can be built, for the purpose of obtaining 
supplies from beyond the seas. But those who 
are forced to have recourse to maritime commerce, 
soon possess that spirit of enterprise, and industry, 
(the daughter of necessity) which is not common 
to other nations. We hear of no maritime enter- 
prise, either of the Chaldeans, or Indians. Even 
the Egyptians held the sea in great abhorrence. 
The sea was their Typhon : their evil spirit : and 
leads us to doubt the fact, of Sesostris having 
equipped four hundred vessels for the conquest of 
India, as asserted. — But, the enterprises of the 



74 OF THE PHOENICIANS, 

Phoenicians, are real, and undoubted. — Carthage 
and Cadiz were founded by them ; England was 
discovered ; and a trade opened to the Indies by 
the way of Ezion-gaber. These, with their manu- 
facture of rich stuffs, and the art of dying in pur- 
ple, are so many proofs of their skill and ability ; 
and that ability laid the foundation of their great- 
ness. The Phoenicians of antiquity seem to have 
been what the Venetians of the fifteenth century 
were ; and, subsequently, what the Dutch be- 
came ; that is, they were compelled to enrich 
themselves by enterprise and industry. 

Commerce, necessarily required registers, of 
some sort, to serve as books of account ; with such 
signs, or figures, as would at once be durable and 
easily understood. Therefore, the existing opi- 
nion, that the Phoenicians were the inventors of 
alphabetic writing, is, very probably, correct. It 
is possible that they did not invent such characters 
before the Chaldeans; but, their alphabet was 
certainly the most complete and useful; since, 
they described the vowels, which the Chaldeans 
did not express. Even the word " Alphabet,'' 
composed of their two first characters, speaks de- 
cidedly in favour of the Phoenicians. 

It does not appear that the Egyptians ever 
communicated their letters, or language, to any 
people. The Phoenicians, on the contrary, trans- 
mitted their language and alphabet to the Cartha- 
ginians, who subsequently altered them. Their 



AND OF SANCHONIATHON. 75 

letters became those of the Greeks. What deci- 
sive proof of the antiquity of the Phoenicians! 

Sanchoniathon was a Phoenician ; who wrote 
(long before the Trojan war) the history of the 
first ages ; of which, some fragments have been 
preserved to us by Eusebius ; and translated by 
Philo of Biblos. We are informed by Sanchonia- 
thon, that the Phoenicians had sacrificed to the 
winds and elements, from time immemorial : and 
this is, in fact, perfectly consistent with the notions 
and ideas of a maritime people. Sanchoniathon, 
like all the first or early writers, wished, in his 
history, to go back to the origin of all things ; he 
had the same ambition as the authors of the Zend, 
and the Vedam ; and as Manethon, in Egypt ; and 
Hesiod, in Greece. 

That which proves the very great antiquity of 
the book written by Sanchoniathon, is, that the 
first lines of it were read in the mysteries of Isis 
and Ceres ; a degree of homage and respect, which 
the Egyptians, and the Greeks, would not have 
rendered to a foreign author ; had they not con- 
sidered him as one of the first, and best authenti- 
cated, sources, of human wisdom and learning. 

Sanchoniathon wrote nothing on his own respon- 
sibility. He consulted all the ancient archives, 
and the priest Jerombal in particular. The name 
"Sanchoniathon," signifies, in the ancient Phoe- 
nician language, "A lover of Truth." Porphyrus, 
Theodorus, and Eusebius, confess as much. — 



76 OF THE PHOENICIANS, 

Phoenicia was called the " Country of the Archives'' 
— " Kirjath Sepher." When the Hebrews came 
to establish themselves in a part of this country, 
they did them that justice ; as may be seen in the 
books of Joshua and Judges. 

This Jerombal, whom Sanchoniathon consulted, 
was the priest of the Supreme God, whom the 
Phoenicians name Iaho, or Jehovah, a name re- 
puted sacred by them ; afterwards adopted by the 
Egyptians, and subsequently by the Jews. We 
perceive, by the fragments which remain to us, of 
this ancient record, that Tyre had existed for a 
long time previous ; although it had not then be- 
come a great and powerful city. The word El, 
which signified God among the first Phoenicians, 
has some affinity to the Alia of the Arabs ; and it 
is probable that from this monosyllable el the 
Greeks composed their Elios. But, what is still 
more remarkable, we find among the ancient Phoe- 
nicians the word Eloa, Eloim, which the Hebrews 
made use of for a very long time after, when they 
established themselves in the land of Canaan. 

It was from the Phoenicians that the Jews took 
all the names which they gave to God, 4- Eloa, 
Iaho, or Jehovah, Adonai, &c. It could not be 
otherwise, since the Jews in Canaan, did not, for 
a long time, speak any other language than the 
Phoenician. 

The word Iaho, or Jehovah, a name so ineffable 
among the Jews, that they never ventured to ut- 



f 



AND OF SANCHONIATHON. 77 

ter it, was so common in the East, that Diodorus, 
in his second book, in speaking of those who pre- 
tended to have held converse with the gods, says 
that " Minos boasted of having had communica- 
" tion with the god Zeus; — Zamolxis, with the 
" goddess Vesta ; and the Jew Moses with the 
" god Iaho," &c. 

That, which claims our particular attention, is, 
that Sanchoniathon, in reference to the ancient 
cosmology of his country, speaks, at first, of a 
chaos, enveloped and surrounded with darkness. 
" Chaut-Ereb" — the Erebus, or Night, of He- 
siod, is taken from the Phoenician word, preserved 
by the Greeks. From Chaos, came forth " muth," 
or " moth," — which signifies matter. Now, who 
arranged and set in order this matter ? It was 
" Colpi Iaho," — the spirit of God, the wind of 
God, or rather, the mouth of God ; the voice of 
God. — jit was by the voice of God that men and 
animals were called into existence./ 

We can readily believe that this cosmogony had 
precedence of, and is the origin of almost all others. 
The people of the greatest antiquity, are always 
imitated, in their manners and customs, by those 
who succeed them/ They learn their language; 
adopt, generally, their rites and ceremonies ; an (J 
apply their antiquities and fables, to themselves 
We are aware that great obscurity attaches to all. 
the Chaldean, Syrian, Phoenician, Egyptian, and 
Greek origins. And what origin is not obscure ? — 



78 OF THE PHOENICIANS, 

We can know nothing, certain, of the form- 
ation of the world ; but, what the Creator of the 
world will himself deign to furnish us with. We 
penetrate, with safety, to a certain extent. We 
know that Babylon existed before Rome ; and, 
that the cities of Syria were eminent and powerful, 
before Jerusalem was known, or heard of. We 
can say, with certainty, that there were kings of 
Egypt, long before the time of Jacob and Abra- 
ham. We know what people were last estab- 
lished ; but to know, with precision, who were the 
first people, requires a revelation. 

We are, at least, permitted to weigh probabili- 
ties, and to make use of our reason, in the exami- 
nation of whatever does not interfere with our 
sacred tenets ; which rise superior to all reason. 

It is incontestably proved, that the Phoenicians 
were in possession of their country, a long time 
before the Hebrews made their appearance there. 
Could the Hebrews have learned the Phoenician 
language, whilst they were wandering in the de- 
sert, far from Phoenicia, in the midst of a few 
hordes of Arabians ? 

Could the Phoenician language have become 
the ordinary language of the Hebrews, and could 
they have written in that language, in the time of 
Joshua, amidst scenes of continual devastation 
and massacre ? The Hebrews, after Joshua, were, 
for a considerable time, slaves, in the country 
which they had attempted to destroy by fire and 



AND OF SANCHONIATHON. 79 

sword. Is it not therefore probable, that it was, 
at this time, that they acquired some knowledge 
of the language of their masters ? as they after- 
wards did, of the Chaldean, when they were slaves 
at Babylon ? 

Is it not much more likely that a commercial, 
industrious, and skilful people, established from 
time immemorial, and who are allowed to be the 
inventors of letters, began to write, a long time be- 
fore a wandering people, but recently established 
in its neighbourhood, possessing no science, with- 
out either industry or commerce, and subsisting 
entirely by plunder ? 

Will any one, seriously, pretend to question, 
the authenticity of the fragments of Sanchoniathon, 
handed down to us by Eusebius ? Or, can any 
one be of opinion, with the learned Huet, that San- 
choniathon could have drawn any thing he recorded, 
from the books of Moses ? Whilst all the monu- 
ments and records of antiquity, which remain to 
us, inform us, that Sanchoniathon lived somewhere 
about the time in which they place the life of 
Moses, . we shall not pretend to decide the point. 
We shall leave the judicious and enlightened 
reader to decide between Huet, and Vandale who 
refutes him.—/ We are in search of truth, and not 
dispute. / 



80 



CHAPTER XIV. 

OF THE SCYTHIANS AND THE GOMERITES. 

We shall leave Gomer, from about the time of his 
leaving the ark to go and subjugate the Gauls, 
and to people their country, in a few years. Tubal 
also, we shall leave to go into Spain, and Magog, 
into the north of Germany, about the time that 
the sons of Cham, or Ham, begat a prodigious 
quantity of children, entirely black, towards the 
coasts of Guinea and Congo. These ridiculous, 
and we may say, disgusting absurdities, have been 
related in so many books, that we are spared the 
trouble of repeating them. Children begin to 
laugh at, and ridicule, such absurd ideas. But, 
by what weakness, or by what secret malignity, 
or affectation, exhibited in a misplaced eloquence, 
have so many historians highly extolled the Scy- 
thians, of whom, in fact they knew nothing ? 

How is it that Quintus Curtius, in speaking of 
the Scythians, who inhabited the country to the 
north of Sogdiana, beyond the Oxus, (but which 
he mistakes for the Tanais, which is fifty leagues 
from it ;) how is it, we ask, that Quintus Curtius 



OF THE SCYTHIANS, AND GOMERITES. 81 

puts into the mouths of these barbarians a philo- 
sophical harangue ? Why does he represent them 
as reproaching Alexander with his thirst of con- 
quest ? Why does he make them say to Alexan- 
der, that he is the most famous robber in the 
world, when they, themselves, had been the 
greatest robbers in all Asia, long before the time 
of Alexander? In fine, why does Quintus Cur- 
tius describe the Scythians as the most just of 
men ? The reason of it is, that as he places the 
Tanais near the Caspian sea, in his erroneous geo- 
graphy, he declaims as an orator, in favour of the 
supposed disinterestedness of the Scythians. 

If Horace, in drawing a comparison between 
the manners of the Scythians, and those of the 
Romans, pronounces, in harmonious verse, the 
panegyric of these barbarians : if he says, 

" Campestres melius Scithse 

Quorum plaustra vagas rite trahunt domos 
Vivunt et rigidi Getse :-■ — " 

it is, because Horace, as a poet, speaks somewhat 
satirically, and seems glad to elevate strangers, 
(or foreigners,) at the expence of his own country. 
Tacitus, in the same way, exhausts himself in 
praising the barbarous Germans, who plundered 
the Gauls, and who sacrificed men to their abomi- 
nable gods. Tacitus, Quintus Curtius, and Ho- 
race, resemble those pedagogues, who, in order to 
excite emulation in their pupils, are, in r,heir pre- 



82 OF THE SCYTHIANS, 

sence, profuse of their praises of the children of 
foreigners, however rude or clownish they may be. 
The Scythians, are the same barbarians whom 
we have since called Tartars : and are the same 
people, who a long time before the age of Alex- 
ander, had frequently ravaged Asia; and been 
the depredators of a large portion of that con- 
tinent. Sometimes, under the name of Monguls, 
or Huns, they have subjected China and the In- 
dies ; sometimes under the name of Turks, they 
have driven out the Arabs, who had conquered a 
part of Asia. It is from these extensive countries 
that the Huns set out on their expedition to 
Rome. These are the upright and disinterested 
men, whose equity is so lauded by the compilers 
of the present day, who imitate Quintus Curtius ! 
It is thus, that we are overwhelmed with ancient 
histories, without either taste or judgment ; they 
are read, with about the same degree of taste and 
spirit, in which they were written ; and, our minds 
become stored with falsehood and error. 

The Russians are the present inhabitants of 
ancient European Scythia. These people have 
furnished history with some very astonishing facts. 
There may have been more striking revolutions in 
the world, but, certainly, none more gratifying to 
the human mind ; and which does it so much 
honor. We have heard of conquerors, and of 
conquests and devastations ; but that a single in- 



AND THE GOMERITES. 83 

dividual should, in the space of twenty years, 
effect an entire change in the manners, laws, and 
genius, of the most extensive empire in the world, 
and that all the arts should throng, as it were, to 
the embellishment of the desert, is truly glorious. 
A woman, who could neither read nor write, per- 
fected what Peter the Great began. Another 
woman, (Elizabeth) carried, still further, these 
noble beginnings : and, a succeeding empress, has 
gone much further than the other two : she has 
communicated her taste and genius to her sub- 
jects ; and the revolutions of the palace, have not, 
for a moment, retarded the progress of the im- 
provement of the empire/ In short, in the course 
of half a century, we behold the court of Scythia, 
become more enlightened, than were ever those 
of Greece and Rome. 



g 2 



84 



CHAPTER XV. 



OF ARABIA. 



They, who are curious in such monuments as are 
found in Egypt, would not seek for them in Arabia. 
It is said that Mecca was built about the time of 
Abraham ; but it is situated in such a sandy and 
barren soil, that it is not likely to have been built 
before those cities which are erected near large 
rivers, and in much more fruitful soils. More 
than one half of Arabia, is a vast desert of sand, 
or stone. But Arabia Felix, or Happy Arabia, 
deserves that appellation ; inasmuch as, that sur- 
rounded by dreary solitudes, and a stormy sea, 
she has been protected from the rapacity and vio- 
lence of those robbers, called conquerors, until 
the time of Mahomet ; or she was, rather, the 
companion of his victories. This, is a much greater 
advantage to it, than its perfumes, its incense, or 
its spice, (which is of inferior quality) or, even of 
its coffee, which constitutes its present wealth. 

Arabia Deserta, is that wretched country, which 
is now inhabited by a few Amalekites, Moabites, 
and Midianites. It is a frightful country ; and, in 



OF ARABIA. 85 

the present day, does not contain more than nine 
or ten thousand Arabs, (a set of wandering thieves 
and robbers) ; nor will it afford subsistence for a 
greater number. It was in these same deserts, 
that two millions of Hebrews are said to have 
passed forty years. Correctly speaking, this is 
not Arabia ; and the country is frequently called 
the " Deserts of Syria." 

Arabia Petraea, was so called, from the name of 
Petra, a small fortress ; a name, certainly not 
given to it by the Arabs, but by the Greeks, about 
the time of Alexander. Arabia Petraea, is very 
small ; and may be confounded, without doing it 
much injustice, with Arabia Deserta. Both the 
one and the other have always been inhabited by 
hordes of vagabonds. 

Nearly the half of that vast part, which is called 
Arabia Felix, also consists in deserts ; but, when 
we advance a few miles into the country, whether 
to the east of Mocha, or even to the east of Mecca, 
we find ourselves in one of the most pleasant and 
agreeable countries in the world. The air is per- 
fumed, in a continual summer, by the odour of 
those aromatick plants, which nature there pro- 
duces without cultivation. A thousand rivulets 
run down the mountains, which breathe perpetual 
coolness ; and, with the delightful ever-green 
shades, serve to temper the heat of the sun. 

It is deserving of remark, that in this country, 



86 OF ARABIA. 

the word garden, or paradise, signified the favor 
of heaven. 

The gardens of Saana near Aden or Eden, were 
much more famous among the Arabians, than even 
those of Alcinous, subsequently were, among the 
Greeks. And this Aden, or Eden, was called 
" The place of Delights." They still speak, in 
this country, of an ancient Shedad, whose gardens 
were not less celebrated. The shady groves con- 
stitute the greatest felicity of those hot climates. 

The extensive country of Yemen, is so beautiful ; 
and its ports in the Indian ocean, so well situ- 
ated ; that, it is even asserted, that Alexander 
wished to make a conquest of Yemen ; in order to 
make it the seat of his empire, and the grand ma- 
gazine of the commerce of the world. He would 
have preserved, and kept up, the old canal of the 
kings of Egypt, which unites the Nile with the 
Red sea : and, all the treasures of India, would 
have passed by the way of Aden, or Eden, to his 
city of Alexandria. Such an enterprise as this, 
bears no resemblance to those insipid and absurd 
narrations, with which the whole of ancient history 
is filled. It would have been certainly necessary 
for him to conquer all Arabia ; and, if any one 
was ever able to do so, it was Alexander. It ap- 
pears, however, that these people did not fear 
him ; they did not even send delegates to him, 
when he had both Persia and Egypt in subjec- 
tion. 



OF ARABIA. 87 

The Arabs, defended by their deserts and their 
courage, have never been subjected to a foreign 
yoke. Trajan conquered but a small part of Arabia 
Petrsea. Even at the present time, they brave the 
power of the Turk. This great people have al- 
ways been as free as the Scythians ; and much 
more civilized, than they. 

We must guard against confounding the ancient 
Arabs, with those hordes who pretend to be the 
descendants of Ishmael. The Ishmaelites, or 
Agarines, or those who pretended to be the chil- 
dren of Cethura, were foreign tribes, who never 
set foot in Arabia Felix. Their clans wandered 
about Arabia Petraea, towards Midian ; they after- 
wards became mixed with the true Arabians, in 
the time of Mahomet ; when they embraced his 
religion. 

But the people of Arabia, properly speaking, 
are the really indigenous natives ; that is to say, 
those, who from time immemorial, have inha- 
bited this beautiful country, without mixing with 
any other nation ; and, without ever having been 
conquered, or conquerors. I Their religion was the 
most beautifully simple, and natural, of any : it 
was the worship of one God, and a veneration for 
the stars, which seemed, under so beautiful and 
clear a sky, to declare the greatness of God, with 
more magnificence than any other part of nature. \ 
They considered the planets as mediators between 
God and man. I This was their religion, until the 



88 OF ARABIA. 

time of Mahomet. It was, probably, tinctured 
with many superstitions, as they were but men. 
But, separated from the rest of the world by seas 
and deserts, in possession of a most delightful 
country, and placed above all want, and all fear, 
they must, of necessity, have been less wicked, 
and less superstitious, than other nations. 

They were never known to invade the dominions 
of their neighbours, like voracious wild beasts ; nor 
to slaughter the weak and defenceless, under the 
pretext of a divine command ; nor to pay their 
court to the powerful, by flattering them with false 
oracles. Their superstitions were neither absurd 
nor barbarous. 

These people are not at all mentioned in those 
universal, or general histories, fabricated in our 
western world. And, for a very good reason. 
They have no kind of affinity with the little Jewish 
nation, which has become the object, and the 
basis, of our pretended universal histories ; in 
which, a certain class of authors, copying the one 
from the other, totally overlook three quarters of 
the world, 



89 



CHAPTER XVI. 

OF BRAM, ABRAM, AND ABRAHAM. 

It appears that the name of Bram, Brama, 
Abram, or Ibrahim, is one of the most common, 
among the ancient people of Asia. The Indians, 
whom we reckon among the first of the nations, 
make of their Brama, a son of God, who taught 
the Bramins their form of worshipping him. This 
name was had in veneration by other nations suc- 
cessively. The Arabs, the Chaldeans, and the 
Persians, appropriated it to themselves ; and the 
Jews considered him as one of their patriarchs. 
The Arabs, who trafficked with the Indians, 
were probably the first, who had some confused 
ideas of Brama, whom they called Abrama ; 
and from whom, they afterwards boasted to be 
descended. The Chaldeans adopted him as a 
legislator. The Persians called their ancient reli- 
gion " Millat Ibrahim," and the Medes called 
theirs " Kish Ibrahim." They maintained that this 
Ibrahim, or Abraham, was a native of Bactriana, 
and that he had lived near the town of Balk. They 
invested him with the title of " Prophet of the 
religion of the ancient Zoroaster. But he un- 



90 OF BRAM, ABRAM, AND ABRAHAM. 

questionably belongs to the Jews only, since they 
acknowledge him as their father, in their sacred 
books. 

Some learned men have declared the name to 
be Indian ; because the Indian priests called them- 
selves Bramins, or Brachmans, and that several 
of their sacred institutions have an immediate re- 
ference to this name : whereas, among the natives 
of western Asia, we find no establishment which 
derives its name from Abram, or Abraham. No 
society whatever, is called the Abrahamic ; nor 
any rite, or ceremony, having any reference what- 
ever to it. But, since the Jewish books assert 
that Abraham was of the stock of the Hebrews, we 
are bound to believe them, without hesitation or 
difficulty. 

The Alcoran cites, respecting Abraham, the 
ancient Arabian histories, but they say very little 
of him. They, however, allege, that this Abra- 
ham was the founder of Mecca. 

The Jews affirm that Abraham came from Chal- 
dea ; and not from India, or Bactriana. But, we 
should recollect, that they were neighbours of the 
Chaldees, and that India, and Bactriana, were un- 
known to them. Abraham was a stranger to all 
these people ; and Chaldea, being a country long- 
celebrated for the arts and sciences, it was, hu- 
manly speaking, an honour, for a petty nation 
shut up in Palestine, to reckon, among its ances- 
tors, an ancient reputed Chaldean sage. 



OF BRAM, ABRAM, AND ABRAHAM. 91 

If we are allowed to examine the historical part 
of the Jewish books, by the same rules which 
would guide us in our examination of other histo- 
ries, we shall be of opinion, with every other com- 
mentator, that the relation of the adventures of 
Abraham, as we find it in the Pentateuch, would 
be subject to some doubt, if found in any other 
history. 

The book of Genesis tells us, that Abraham de- 
parted from Haran, after the death of his father, 
at the age of seventy-five years. But, in the same 
book of Genesis, we are told that Terah, his father, 
begat him, when seventy years old; and. lived to 
the age of 205 years. So that Abraham must have 
quitted Chaldea at the age of 135 years ; and, it 
certainly seems strange, that, at that age, he should 
abandon the fertile country of Mesopotamia, to 
travel a distance of three hundred miles, into the 
barren and stony country of Sichem ; which was 
not a place of any trade, or commerce. From Si- 
chem, they represent him as going to Memphis, to 
buy corn ; a distance, of about six hundred miles ; 
and, shortly after his arrival, the king of the 
country becomes enamoured of his wife, who was 
seventy-five years old. 

/ We shall not meddle with any thing divine in 
/this history ; but, adhere strictly, to the researches 
of antiquity/ It is said, that Abraham received 
great presents from the king of Egypt. This 
country then, must, at this time, have been a pow- 



92 OF BRAM, ABRAM, AND ABRAHAM. 

erful state : monarchy was established, and the 
arts cultivated; the large rivers had been sub- 
dued, and canals cut in all parts, to receive the 
overflowing waters ; without which, the country 
could not have been habitable. 

Now, we appeal to every sensible and rational 
man, whether ages are not necessary to the esta- 
blishment of such an empire as this, in a country, 
rendered, for a long time, waste and inaccessible, 
by the very waters which fertilized it ? According 
to the book of Genesis, Abraham arrived in Egypt 
two thousand years before our vulgar era. We can, 
therefore, well excuse Manethon, Herodotus, Di- 
odorus, and Eratosthenes, and many other authors, 
for the very great antiquity which they ascribe to 
the kingdom of Egypt. And yet, it is of modern 
date, when compared with the antiquity of the 
Chaldeans, and Syrians. 

Abraham is represented, on going out of Egypt, 
as a wandering shepherd, straying somewhere be- 
tween Mount Carmel and the Lake Asphaltide ; 
and this, is one of the most barren spots, in Arabia 
Petraea. He there pitches his tents, with three 
hundred and eighteen servants ; and his nephew, 
Lot, was settled in the city, or town, of Sodom. 
A king of Babylon, a king of Pontus, a king of 
Persia, and a king of many other nations, form an 
alliance, and make war against Sodom, and four 
other neighbouring towns. They take these towns, 
and Sodom, also. Lot becomes their prisoner- 



OF BRAM, ABRAM, AND ABRAHAM. 93 

We cannot well comprehend, how live such great 
and powerful kings, could find it necessary to con- 
federate, for the purpose of attacking a horde of 
Arabs, in a part of the world so wild and unculti- 
vated ; nor, how Abraham was enabled to defeat 
such great and powerful monarchs, with only three 
hundred country servants, or followers ; nor, how 
he could possibly pursue them beyond Damascus. 
Some translators put Dan for Damascus, but Dan 
did not exist even in the time of Moses, much less 
in the time of Abraham. It is more than three 
hundred miles from the extremity of the Lake As- 
phaltide, where Sodom was situated, to Damascus. 
All this is far beyond our conceptions. Every 
thing is miraculous in the history of the Hebrews ; 
but, /we have already said, and now repeat, that 
we believe these, and all other Hebrew prodigies, 
without examination. 



94 



CHAPTER XVII. 



OF INDIA. 



We think we may safely venture to give it as our 
opinion, that the Indians, about the Ganges, were 
among the first of the nations. It is certain that 
the soil, yielding in the greatest abundance, food 
for the animal race, is very soon covered with the 
species to which it affords nourishment. Now, 
there is no country in the world, where the human 
species can more easily acquire the most whole- 
some and agreeable food, and in the greatest 
abundance, than towards the Ganges. Rice 
grows there without cultivation ; ananas, cocoa- 
nuts, dates, and figs, on all sides, present to our 
acceptance the most delicious food : whilst, the 
orange and citron tree, afford the most refreshing- 
drinks, with some nourishment. The sugar cane 
grows indigenous. Palm-trees, and fig-trees with 
large broad leaves, afford the most pleasant and 
delightful shades. It is not necessary, in this 
country, to slaughter the flocks, to provide cloth- 
ing as a defence against the rigours of the season. 
Even in the present day, children are brought up 



or india. 95 

in a state of nature, until they reach the age of 
puberty. The people of the country were never 
obliged to risk their lives for their support, by 
hunting and attacking animals, and subsisting on 
their lacerated members, as has been the case in 
almost every other part. 

In this delightful climate, men assembled, as it 
were, spontaneously, and formed themselves into 
societies. There were never any disputed claims 
to a paltry, barren, spot of land, for the purpose 
of rearing their lean flocks ; nor did they ever 
make war upon each other for a spring, or well : 
as was the case with the barbarians of Arabia 
PetraBa. 

We do not intend to recapitulate, the ancient 
monuments, of which, the Bramins make so much 
boast. It will suffice to observe, that the greatest 
curiosities and rarities of antiquity, which the 
Chinese emperor, Cam-hi, had in his palace, were 
all Indian. He shewed our mathematical mis- 
sionaries, some ancient Indian coins, stamped in 
the corner ; and of a date, greatly anterior, to the 
copper coins of the Chinese emperors. / It is 
highly probable, that the Persians acquired the 
art of coining money, from the Indians. 

The Greeks, previous to Pythagoras, travelled 
into India for information. The signs of the seven 
planets, &c. are still, in almost all the world, the 
same as the Indians invented. The Arabs were 
obliged to adopt their arithmetical characters ; 



96 OF INDIA. 

and, it is incontestable, that the game [chess] 
which does the greatest honour to human inven- 
tion, is of Indian origin. The elephants, for which 
we have substituted castles, are a proof of it. 

In fine, the people of the greatest antiquity, — 
the Persians, the Phoenicians, the Arabians, and 
the Egyptians, were accustomed, from time imme- 
morial, to travel into India ; and to traffic for, and 
bring thence, those spices which nature has be- 
stowed on these countries alone. But, the In- 
dians, were never necessitated to resort to any of 
those countries, for produce of any kind. 

We are told of a certain Bacchus, who, it is said, 
set out from Egypt, or from some country of wes- 
tern Asia, to conquer India. This Bacchus then, 
who ever he may have been, knew, that at the 
extremity of our continent, there was a country far 
preferable to his own. Necessity leads to robbery 
and plunder. They only invaded India because 
she was rich ; and, assuredly, a rich people were 
united in society, and civilized and enlightened, 
long before a people, who live by robbery and 
plunder. 

That which strikes me the most forcibly, in 
India, is, the ancient opinion of the transmigration 
of souls ; which, in the coarse of time, extended to 
China and Europe. ; It was not that the Indians 
had any just, or regularly defined, ideas of the 
soul ; but, they imagined that this principle, whe- 
ther aerial or igneous, successively animated other 



OF INDIA. 97 

bodies. Let us observe, attentively, the effect, 
which this system of philosophy produced, on the 
manners of the people. The perverse and wicked 
had a great dread of being condemned by Visnou, 
and Brama, to become the most vile and pitiful of 
animals. We shall soon see, that the superior 
people had an idea of another life ; although they 
possessed different notions. ) The doctrine of the 
immortality of the soul, seems to have been esta- 
blished among the whole of the ancient empires of 
the world, with the exception of the Chines^. 
Their first legislators promulgated only moral 
laws ; they thought it sufficient to exhort men to 
virtue ; and, to enforce it, by a strict and severe 
policy. 

In embracing the doctrine of Metempsychosis, 
the Indians were still further restrained, by the 
fear of killing their fathers or mothers, in killing 
men, or animals ; and this inspired them with a 
great horror of the crime of murder, and violence, 
of any kind ; which, among them, became a kind 
of feeling of second nature. Thus, the Indians, 
whose families are not allied to the Arabians, or 
Tartars, are, at the present day, the most meek 
and gentle of all people. Their religion, and the 
temperature of their climate, render these people, 
in every respect, similar to those harmless animals 
which we lock up in our sheep-cotes and pigeon - 
houses, to slaughter at our convenience. All those 
barbarous nations which invaded this country, from 



98 OF INDIA. 

the mountains of Caucasus, Taurus, and Immaus, 
for the purpose of subjugating the inhabitants on 
the borders of the Indus, the Hidaspes and the 
Ganges, enslaved them, solely by shewing them- 
selves. 

The same thing would happen to those primitive 
Christians, whom we call Quakers, and who are as 
peaceable and harmless as the Indians. They 
would be destroyed by other nations, if they were 
not united with, and protected by, their warlike 
brethren. The Christian religion, which these 
primitives alone follow to the letter, is as great an 
enemy to the shedding of blood, as the Pytha- 
gorean. But the people, calling themselves Chris- 
tians, have never followed their religion ; whereas, 
the ancient Indian castes, have always practised 
theirs. The Pythagorean, is the only religion in 
the world, possessed of influence sufficient to en- 
gender, from a feeling of horror of murder and 
manslaughter, filial piety and religious sentiments. 
The transmigration of souls is a system, in itself, 
so simple, and even so probable, in the eyes of an 
unlettered and ignorant people ; and, it is so easy 
to believe, that what animates one individual, may, 
subsequently, animate another ; that all those, who 
adopted this religion, fancied they saw the souls ] 
of their parents, animating those by whom they 
were surrounded. They all looked upon each 
other, as brothers, fathers, mothers, and children, 
of the same family. Such an idea, naturally in- 



OF INDIA. 99 

spired a feeling of universal charity. They shud- 
dered, at the thoughts of wounding a being, who 
belonged to the common family. /In a word, the 
ancient religions of India, and 01 the literati of 
China, are the only ones in which men have not 
acted as barbarians. How did it happen, that the 
same individuals, who considered it a crime to 
slaughter an animal, subsequently permitted wo- 
men to burn themselves, on the bodies of their 
husbands ; in the vain hope of seeing them revive, 
in bodies, much more beautiful and happy ? / To 
this, we reply, that fanaticism and superstition are 
the common ingredients of human nature.! 

We ought, in particular, to consider, that their 
abstinence from animal food, results from the na- 
ture of the climate. From the extreme heat and 
moisture, meat soon becomes corrupt in this 
country ; and, consequently, is a very indifferent 
article of food. Nature also prohibits the use of 
strong liquors in India; which there requires 
cool and refreshing drinks. It is a fact, that Me- 
tempsychosis was known to, and practised by, 
several of our northern nations. The Celtae be- 
lieved, that they should be born again, with other 
bodies ; but, if, to this doctrine, the Druids had 
added a prohibition to eat flesh, they would not 
have been obeyed. 

We know but very little of the ancient rites of 
the Bramins, as practised at the present time. 
They suffer very little to escape them, of the an- 

h 2 



100 OF INDIA. 

cient books of the Hanscrit, (or Shanscrit) which 
they still preserve in that most ancient and sacred 
language. Their Vedams were as long unknown 
to us, as the Zend of the Persians, and the Five 
Kings of the Chinese. It is not more than a hun- 
dred and twenty years ago, that the Europeans 
obtained their first information of the Five Kings : 
and the Zend has only been seen by the cele- 
brated Doctor Hide, who had not the means of 
purchasing it, nor wherewith to pay the interpre- 
ter; and the merchant Chardin, who would not 
pay the price he was asked for it. We had only 
that extract from the Zend, the Sadder, of which 
we have spoken so much at length. 

A more fortunate chance furnished the library 
of Paris, with an ancient book of the Bramins ; 
the Ezourvedam, written before the expedition of 
Alexander into India ; with a ritual of all the an- 
cient rites and ceremonies of the Bramins, en- 
titled the " Cormo-Vedam : " this manuscript 
translated by a Bramin, is not, certainly, the 
Vedam itself; but, it is a summary of the opi- 
nions and rites, contained in that law. We may 
now, then, flatter ourselves with the fact of pos- 
sessing some knowledge, of the three most an- 
cient records in the world. 

We must despair of ever obtaining any precise 
information respecting the Egyptians : their books, 
are lost ; and their religion, annihilated : they 
know nothing, even of their ancient vulgar 



OF INDIA. 101 

tongue: much less, the sacred. Thus, that 
which was nearest to us, and most easily pre- 
served ; and deposited, withal, in immense libra- 
ries, has perished for ever ; whilst we have found, 
at the extremity of the world, monuments of an- 
tiquity, not less authentic or important; and 
which, we could not have had the most distant 
hopes of obtaining. 

No doubt whatever can be entertained, of the 
authenticity of this ritual of the Brachmans, of 
which we are speaking. The author is not, by 
any means, a flatterer of his sect ; he does not 
attempt to disguise their superstitions ; nor to give 
them an air of probability, by forced or con- 
strained explanations ; nor, to excuse them, under 
the veil of allegory. But, on the contrary, he 
gives an account of the most ridiculous and ex- 
travagant laws, with simplicity and candour. 
The human mind, is there exhibited, in all its 
misery. If the Bramins observed all the laws of 
their Vedam, there is no monk, who would sub- 
ject himself to such a rigorous state of discipline. 
Scarcely is the son of a Bramin born, than he 
becomes the slave of ceremonies. His tongue is 
rubbed, with a diluted preparation of rosin and 
flour : they pronounce over him, the word Oum ; 
twenty divinities are invoked, before they ven- 
ture to cut the navel-string; but, at the same 
time, they say to him, " Live to rule over men ; " 
and, as soon as he can speak, he is made to feel 



102 OF INDIA. 

the dignity of his nature. In fact, the Bramins 
were, a long time, sovereigns, in India; and, 
theocracy was more deeply rooted, in that ex- 
tensive country, than in any other, in the world. 

In a short time, the infant is exposed to the 
moon ; they pray to the Supreme Being, beseech- 
ing him to pardon and efface the sins which the 
child may have committed, although he is not 
more than a week old : they chaunt anthems to 
the fire; and, attended with numerous ceremo- 
nies, they give the child the name of Chormo ; 
which is the title of honour, among the Bramins. 

As soon as the child can walk, he is continually 
occupied in bathing, and reciting prayers. He 
performs the sacrifice of the dead ; and this sacri- 
fice is instituted, as an invocation to Brama, to 
bestow upon the child's ancestors, a happy and 
agreeable abode, in other bodies. Prayers are 
then offered up, to the five winds, which pass 
through the five apertures of the human body. 
But, this is not more strange and silly, than the 
prayers which the good old women of Rome, offer 
up to the god Pet. 

None of the operations of nature, nor any action 
whatever, among the Bramins, is suffered to pass, 
without prayers and invocations. When the 
child's head is first shaved, the father says de- 
voutly to the razor, — " Razor, shave my son ; as 
" thou hast shaved the sun, and the god Indro." 
It may, after all, be possible, that the god Indro 



OF INDIA. 103 

had been formerly shaved, but as for the sun, that 
is not so easy to comprehend : unless, indeed, the 
Bramins had in view our Apollo ; whom, we still 
represent, as without a beard. 

The recital of the whole of these ceremonies 
would be as tedious, as the ceremonies themselves 
are ridiculous. But they, in their blindness, say 
just as much with respect to us. There is, how- 
ever, one mysterious rite among them, which 
ought not to be passed over in silence. It is the 
" Matricha Machom." By this mystery, they 
bestow upon themselves a new being, — a new 
life. 

They supposed the soul to be situated in the 
breast ; and we may here remark, that this was, 
in fact, the general opinion of the ancients. I They 
pass the hand from the breast to the head, ^press- 
ing on the nerve which they believe to communi- 
cate from one of these organs to the other ; and 
thus, the soul is conducted to the brain : when 
they feel sure of the soul's being sufficiently ele- 
vated, the young man then exclaims, that his 
soul, and his body, are reunited to the Supreme 
Being; and adds, " I am myself a portion of the 
Divinity." 

This opinion, was also that of the most respect- 
able philosophers of Greece ; of those Stoicks, 
who have exalted human nature beyond itself; — 
of the divine Antonines. We must allow, that no 
opinions can be better calculated, to inspire men 



104 OF INDIA. 

with the love of great and exalted virtue. To be- 
lieve ourselves a portion of the Divinity, is, in 
fact, imposing a positive law upon ourselves, not 
to be guilty of any thing, unworthy of God him- 
self. 

We find, in the Bramin law, ten command- 
ments, and they are so many sins to avoid. They 
are divided into three classes; — the sins of the 
body; — those of speech; — and those of the will 
or inclination. To assault or kill our neighbour, to 
rob him, and to violate the chastity of women, are 
the sins of the body. To dissemble, to lie, to 
slander, and speak ill of our neighbour, are the 
sins of speech. Those of the will, consist in 
wishing evil ; in beholding with envy the posses- 
sions of others : and, in not feeling compassion for 
the miseries of other people. — These ten com- 
mandments obliterate, at once, the remembrance 
of all their ridiculous rites. We see clearly, that 
morality is the same, among all civilized nations ; 
and that those ceremonies and customs, which are 
considered as of the most sacred nature by one 
people, may, to others, appear equally absurd and 
extravagant. I Established rites divide the human 
race in opinion, but morality heals the division, 
and is uniform in its effects. 

Superstition, never precluded the Bramins from 
acknowledging one God. — Strabo, in his 15th 
Book, says, that " they worship one Supreme 
" God ; that, they keep silence several years before 



OF INDIA. 



105 



"they presume to speak; that they are sober, 
" chaste, and temperate ; and that, they live in the 
" practice of justice, and die without regret." The 
same testimony to their character is borne by St. 
Clement of Alexandria, Apulius, Porphyrus, Pal- 
ladius, and St. Ambrose. Let us not forget, in 
particular, that they had a terrestrial paradise ; 
and that those, who abused the blessings of God, 
were driven out of this paradise. 

The fall of degenerate man, is made the foun- 
dation of the theology of almost all ancient na- 
tions. 1 The natural inclination of man to complain 
of the present, and to boast of the past, has every 
where led to the entertainment of an opinion, that 
there must have been a kind of golden age ; and 
that the iron ages have succeeded it. 

It is not a little remarkable, that the Vedam of 
the ancient Brachmans, teaches, that the first man 
was Adimo (or Adam), and the first woman, Pro- 
criti. Adimo, signifies " Lord," — and Procriti, 
" Life;" in the same way that Heva, or Eve, 
among the Phoenicians and Hebrews, also signi- 
fied life, or the serpent. This conformity merits 
our greatest attention. \ 



106 



CHAPTER XVIII. 



OF CHINA. 



Shall we venture to speak of the Chinese with- 
out a reference to their own proper annals ? They 
are confirmed by the unanimous testimony of 
travellers of all nations and sects ; — -by Jacobins, 
Jesuits, Lutherans, and Calvinists ; all interested 
in their contradiction. 

It is evident that the Chinese empire has been 
established upwards of four thousand years. This 
ancient people, never heard speak of those physi- 
cal revolutions, — of those inundations and confla- 
grations, the feeble recollections of which, were 
preserved and varied, in the fables of the deluge 
of Deucalion, and the fall of Phaeton. The climate 
of China, then, happily escaped these scourges; 
as it did, also, that of the plague, properly so 
called ; and which, has so frequently ravaged 
Africa, Asia, and Europe. 

If any annals carry with them an air of certainty, 
and possess a genuine character, they are those 
of the Chinese ; who have united, as we have al- 
ready said elsewhere, the history of the heavens 



OF CHINA. 107 

with that of the earth. They only, of all people, 
have constantly marked their epochs, by the 
eclipses, and by the conjunctions of the planets ; 
and our astronomers, on examining their calcula- 
tions, have been astonished to find them uniformly 
correct. Other nations devised allegorical fables ; 
but the Chinese, wrote their history, with the 
pen and cross-staff in their hands, with a sim- 
plicity and correctness, of which we find no ex- 
ample in any other part of Asia. 

The reign of each of their emperors, has been 
written by contemporaries ; no different manner 
of reckoning among them ; no chronologies, which 
contradict each other. Our missionary travellers 
relate, with candour, that, when they spoke to 
that sage emperor, Camhi, of the great chronolo- 
gical variations of the Vulgate, of the Septuagint, 
and of the Samaritans, Camhi asked them, if it 
were possible, that the books in which they be- 
lieved, contradicted each other ? 

The Chinese wrote on tablets of thin bamboo, 
when the Chaldeans wrote only on brick ; and 
those ancient tablets exist at present ; having been 
preserved from corruption, by an ingenious pre- 
paration of varnish. They are, perhaps, the most 
ancient records in the world. There is no history, 
among them, before the time of their emperors; no 
fictions ; no prodigies, or miracles ; nor any in- 
spired individuals, pretending to be demi-gods, as 



108 OF CHINA. 

among the Egyptians and the Greeks. But, as soon 
as this people begin to write, they write rationally. 
They differ in particular from other nations, in 
this, — that their history makes no mention what- 
ever of a college of priests, at all interfering with, 
or possessing any influence over, the laws. The 
Chinese do not go back to those savage and bar- 
barous times, when it was necessary to practise 
deceptions on men, in order to govern them. The 
history of other nations, begins with the creation 
of the world ; the Zend of the Persians, the Vedam 
of the Indians, Sancthoniathon, Manethon, and 
even Hesiod, all go back to the origin of things ; 
to the creation of the world. The Chinese have 
not acted with such folly ; their history, is that of 
historical times only. 

It is here, in particular, that we must apply 
our great fundamental principle; that a nation, 
whose first chronicles attest the existence of a vast 
empire, powerful and learned, must have been 
united in society, as a people, for many centuries 
previously. We here behold a people, who, for 
more than four thousand years, write a daily ac- 
count of their historical annals. Again ; — we ask, 
if it would not be madness to dispute the fact, 
that in order to be well skilled in ail the arts of 
civil society, and to arrive at the point not only 
of writing, but of writing well, more time must 
have been necessary than the Chinese empire has 



OF CHINA. 109 

existed; in reckoning only from the time of the 
emperor Fo-hi, to the present day. No literary 
man, in China, has any doubt, of the books of the 
Five Kings having been written two thousand three 
hundred years, before our vulgar era. This mo- 
numental record, therefore, has a precedence of 
four hundred years, over the first Babylonian ob- 
servations sent into Greece by Callisthenes. Does 
it, in good faith, become the literati of Paris, to 
contest the antiquity of a Chinese book, regarded 
as authentic by all the tribunals of China ? 

The first rudiments, of every kind, are more 
slow of acquisition among mankind, than great 
proficiencies. Let us remember, that five hun- 
dred years ago, scarcely any one knew how 
to write, either in the north, or in Germany, or 
among ourselves. The tallies, which are used in 
the present day, by our bakers and butchers, 
were our hieroglyphics, and our books of account. 
This was the only arithmetic made use of, in levy- 
ing the taxes; as the name of "Tallies," still in 
use in our different provinces, sufficiently attests. 
Our capricious customs, which have been com- 
mitted to writing, only about four hundred and 
fifty years, point out to us, how very rare the art 
of writing was in those days. There is not a peo- 
ple in Europe, who have not, latterly, made more 
progress in half a century, in all the arts, than 
they had previously made, from the time of the 



110 OF CHINA. 

invasions of the barbarians, up to the fourteenth 
century. 

We shall not here inquire, why the Chinese 
arrived at the knowledge and practice of every 
thing useful to society, have not arrived at that 
point of perfection in the sciences, which is our 
present boast. It must be confessed, they are as 
bad physicians, as we were, two hundred years ago ; 
and, as the Greeks and Romans also were i but 
they have perfected morality, which is the first of 
all the sciences. 

Their vast and populous empire was already 
governed as one family, of whom the monarch was 
the father, and of whom forty legislative tribunals 
were regarded as the eldest brothers, when we 
were wandering, few in number, in the forests of 
Ardennes. 

Their religion was beautifully simple, modest, 
and august ; — free from all superstition, and all 
barbarism; when we, had not even those deities, 
to whom the Druids sacrificed the children of our 
ancestors, in large wicker baskets. 

The Chinese emperors, themselves, presented 
an offering to the God of the universe, (to Chang- 
ti, — or Tien; — to the principle, or first cause of 
all things;) the first fruits of the harvests, twice 
a year. And these offerings were always the fruits, 
or produce, of what they had sown with their own 
hands ! This custom has prevailed for upwards of 



OF CHINA. Ill 

four thousand years ; even in the midst of revolu- 
tions, and of the most horrid calamities. The re- 
ligion of the emperors, and of the tribunals, has 
never been disgraced by impostures ; nor disturbed 
by the quarrels of the national priesthood ; nor bur- 
thened with absurd innovations, opposed to each 
other, by arguments, as absurd as the innovations 
themselves; and the folly and madness of which, 
have led fanatics, at the instigation of the factious, 
to defend their opinions at the point of the sword. 
It is in this, above all, that the Chinese have 
proved themselves superior to every nation in the 
universe. 

Their Confucius did not propagate any new 
opinions, nor establish any new rites. He did 
not pretend to be inspired, nor to be a prophet. 
He was a magistrate, who instructed them in their 
ancient laws. We sometimes say, but very im-i 
properly, " The Religion of Confucius ;" he had v 
no other religion than that of all the emperors, 
and all the tribunals ; such, as was common to 
all the sages, and literati, of the empire. He 
preached no mysteiy, and virtue only, was the 
object of his strong recommendation. In his first 
book, he says, that to learn to govern well, we 
must pass our whole time, in improving, and cor- 
recting, ourselves. In his second book, he proves 
that God himself has engraved the love of virtue, 
on the heart of man ; he says, that man is not born 
wicked ; but becomes so, by his own faulty, and 



112 OF CHINA. 

bad, conduct. The third book, is a collection of 
pure and excellent maxims ; wherein, we find no- 
thing low, or mean ; nor any thing, of a nature 
ridiculously allegorical. He had five thousand 
disciples, and might have put himself at the head 
of a powerful party ; but, the chief object of his 
delight, was to instruct men ; not, to govern 
them. 

In an essay on General History, the temerity 
with which we, at the extremity of the West, have 
passed judgment on this eastern court, and brand- 
ed it with atheism, is most forcibly and justly 
condemned. In fine, by what folly and ignorance 
must those, among us, have been actuated, who 
have ventured to reproach with atheism, an em- 
pire, almost the whole of whose laws are founded 
on the acknowledgment of a Supreme Being, the 
rewarder and punisher of his creatures? The 
inscriptions on their temples, of which we have 
authentic copies, are to this effect — " To the 
" Great First Cause, without beginning, and 
" without end. He is the Creator of all ; 
" He governs all. He is infinitely good, infi- 
" nitely just ; he enlightens, he supports, he re- 
" gulates, the whole of nature." 

In Europe, the Jesuits, (who are no great fa- 
vourites, have been reproached with flattering the 
atheists of China. A Frenchman, named 
Maigrot, the bishop of Conon, who did not under- 
stand a word of Chinese, was deputed by the 



OF CHINA. 113 

Pope, to go and judge of their actions, on the 
spot. He pronounced Confucius to be an atheist, 
from the following words of that great man: 
" Heaven has given me virtue, man can do me 
" no harm." The greatest of our saints never ut- 
tered a more divine maxim. If Confucius was 
an atheist, Cato, and the Chancellor of the Hos- 
pital were so also. 

To put such gross calumniators to the blush, we 
shall here remark, that the same men, who, in op- 
position to Bayle, maintained that a society of 
atheists was impossible, asserted, at the same time, 
that the most ancient government in the world 
was composed of atheists ! Men cannot take too 
much shame to themselves for such silly con- 
tradictions. 

We must here observe that the literati of China, 
the worshippers of one only God, yet abandoned 
the people to the superstitions of the Bonzes. They 
tolerated the sect of Laokium, of Fo, and several 
others. The magistrates considered, that the 
people might have different religions from the 
state ; in the same way, that they are accustomed 
to a coarser kind of food, and nourishment. They 
therefore, tolerated the Bonzes ; and protected 
them. In almost every part, those who filled the 
office of Bonze, were entrusted with the principal 
authority. 

It is true, that the laws of China do not speak 
of rewards and punishments after death ; they 



114 OF CHINA. 

would not venture to affirm that, of which they 
knew nothing, f The doctrine of a hell, was use- 
ful ; but the government of China, would never 
admit it. They were content to exhort men to re- 
verence the Deity ; and to be just, and upright. 
They believed that a strict attention to, and a con- 
stant restraint exercised over, the manners and 
habits of the people, would have more effect, than 
opinions which may be disputed ; and that the 
people would live in greater fear of the law, 
always present, than a law to come. We shall 
speak, in the proper place, of another people, 
of infinitely less consequence, who possessed 
nearly the same ideas ; or rather, who had no 
ideas at all ; but, who were conducted by ways 
unknown to other men. 

To resume, — we shall here merely remark, that 
the Chinese empire subsisted in splendour, when 
the Chaldeans began their calculations, of 1900 
years of astronomical observations, sent into 
Greece by Callisthenes. The Bramins then 
reigned, in a part of India; the Persians had 
their laws ; the Arabians, in the south, and the 
Sycthians in the north, dwelt in tents : and 
Egypt, of which we are now going to speak, was 
a powerful kingdom. 



115 



CHAPTER XIX. 



OF EGYPT. 



It appears evident that the Egyptians, (ancient 
as they undoubtedly are,) could not have been 
united in society as a regularly organized body ; or 
have become a civilized, cultivated, industrious 
and powerful people, but for a very long time 
after, all those nations, which have passed in re- 
view. The cause thereof is easy of explanation ; 
and will, we trust, be as easily understood. Egypt, 
as far as the Delta, is enclosed by two chains of 
rocks, between which the Nile precipitates itself, 
in descending from Ethiopia in the south, to the 
north. From the Cataracts of the Nile, at its 
sources, it runs only in a straight line of 
one hundred and sixty leagues, of three thou- 
sand geometrical paces each ; and the breadth 
is only from ten, to fifteen and twenty leagues, 
up as far as the Delta, in the lower part of 
Egypt, which embraces an extent of fifty leagues, 
from east to west. To the right of the Nile, are 
the deserts of Thebaid ; and to the left the unin- 
i 2 



116 OF EGYPT. 

habitable sands of Libya ; as far as the little 
country, where the temple of Amnion was built. 

The inundations of the Nile must, for ages, 
have prevented the colonization of a country, over- 
flowed during four months in the year : and, these 
stagnant waters, continually on the increase, must, 
for a long time, have rendered Egypt a complete 
marsh, or bog. It is very different with those 
countries situated on the borders of the Euphrates, 
the Tigris, the Indus, the Ganges, and some other 
rivers; which also overflow their banks, almost 
every year, in summer, on the thawing of the 
snows. Their overflowings are not so consider- 
able ; and the vast plains which surround them, 
afford the husbandmen abundant opportunity of 
profiting by the fertilization of the soil. 

Let us observe, in particular, that the plague, 
(that scourge of the human race) prevails in Egypt, 
at least one year in ten ; and it must have been 
much more destructive, when the stagnant waters 
of the Nile added their infection to this horrible 
contagion ; and, consequently, the population of 
Egypt must, for many centuries, have been of 
very trifling extent. 

The natural order and course of things seems, 
therefore, clearly to demonstrate, that Egypt, was 
one of the lastly inhabited parts of the earth. The 
Troglodites, born on those rocks with which the 
Nile is bounded, were compelled to undertake the 
long and tedious task of cutting canals, to receive 



OF EGYPT. 117 

the waters of the river; and of erecting cabins 
and cottages, at an elevation of five and twenty 
feet above the ground. This, however, is what must 
have been done before Thebes, with its hundred 
gates, could have been built ; and also, before the 
erection of Memphis, or any idea of the construc- 
tion of pyramids, could have been entertained. 
It is singular, that no ancient historian has made 
so rational and consistent a reflection. 

We have already observed, that about the time 
placed for the travels, or journeyings, of Abraham, 
Egypt was a powerful kingdom. Its kings had 
already built some of those pyramids, which stilL 
astonish the eyes, and the imagination, of the tra- 
veller. The Arabian writings relate, that the 
largest of them was raised by Saurid, many cen- 
turies before the time of Abraham. It is not known 
when the celebrated Thebes, with its hundred 
gates, was built, — the city of God, — Diospolis. It 
appears that in those remote times, large cities 
bore the nanle of " The Cities of God," as Baby- 
lon, &c. But, who can possibly believe, that 
through each of the hundred gates of Thebes, 
there went out two hundred chariots of war, and 
one hundred thousand combatants ? That would 
amount to twenty thousand chariots, and one mil- 
lion of soldiers ; and, if we reckon one soldier to 
every five inhabitants, the amount of the popula- 
tion of this single city, would be five millions ; in 
a country which is not so large as Spain or France, 



118 OF EGYPT. 

and which had not, according to Diodorus of 
Sicily, more than three millions of inhabitants, 
and one hundred and sixty thousand soldiers for 
its defence. Diodorus, in his first book, says, that 
Egypt was so populous, that it formerly contained 
seven millions of inhabitants ; and that, in his time, 
it still had a population of three millions. 

We can probably place as little reliance on the 
conquests of Sesostris, as on the million of soldiers 
going out by the hundred gates of Thebes. We 
fancy ourselves in the field of romance, when we 
are told by all those who copy Herodotus, that 
the father of Sesostris, founding his hopes and 
expectations on a dream, and on an oracle, des- 
tined his son for the subjugation of the world ; 
and that he had all those children, who were born 
on the same day as his son, brought up in his 
court, to the profession of arms : and, that they 
were not permitted to eat, until they had run eight 
of our largest leagues. We are told withal, that 
Sesostris set out with six hundred thousand men, 
and twenty-seven thousand chariots of war, for 
the conquest of the whole world ; extending from 
the Indus, to the extremities of the Pont-Euxine ; 
and that he subjugated Mingrelia, and Georgia, 
(then called Colchis.) Herodotus seems to have 
no doubt that Sesostris colonized Colchis ; be- 
cause, he there saw some tawny-coloured men, 
with frizzled air, like the Egyptians. We should 
think it much more probable, that the Scythians, 



OF EGYPT. 119 

from the borders of the Black and Caspian seas, 
had made exactions upon the Egyptians, when 
they (for such a length of time) ravaged Asia, be- 
fore the reign of Cyrus. It is not improbable, 
that they brought away with them, some Egyp- 
tian slaves ; the descendants of whom, Herodotus 
saw, or thought he saw, at Colchis. If it be true, 
that these Colchians had the superstition to cir- 
cumcise themselves, they had, probably, retained 
that custom, from the Egyptians; as, it almost 
always happens, that the people of the north 
adopt the rites and customs of the civilized nations 
whom they have subdued. 

The Egyptians were never, within any recog- 
nised period, a formidable people ; no enemy ever 
invaded their country, or made war upon them, 
without success. The Scythians began ; after 
them, came Nabuchodonosor, who conquered 
Egypt without resistance ; Cyrus only found it 
necessary to send thither one of his lieutenants ; 
when they revolted, under Cambyses, a single 
campaign was sufficient to reduce them to subjec- 
tion ; and this same Cambyses had so great a 
contempt of the Egyptians, that he killed their 
god Apis, before their eyes. Ochus reduced 
Egypt to a province of his kingdom. Alexander, 
Caesar, Augustus, and the Caliph Omar, con- 
quered Egypt with equal facility. These same 
people of Colchis, under the denomination of Ma- 
melukes, seized upon Egypt in the time of the 



120 OF EGYPT. 

Crusades ; and finally, Selim conquered Egypt in 
a single campaign, like all those who had pre- 
ceded him. The Crusaders alone, were beaten 
by the Egyptians, the most cowardly and pusil- 
lanimous of all people, as we have before ob- 
served ; but it was, because they Were, at that 
time, under the military government of the Mame- 
lukes, of Colchis. It is certainly possible, that a 
people, now reduced to subjection, may have 
been, formerly, conquerors : witness, the Greeks 
and Romans. But, we are much more certain of 
the ancient greatness of the Romans and Greeks, 
than we are of that of Sesostris. 

It may be possible, that he, whom they call 
Sesostris, had a fortunate war, against some 
Ethiopians, a few Arabs, or some of the people 
of Phoenicia. This, in the language of exaggera- 
tory, has been magnified into the conquest of the 
world. There is no nation, to whatever state of 
subjection it may be brought, but will boast of 
having, formerly, subjugated and conquered others. 
The vain glory of an ancient superiority, affords \\ 
consolation for present humiliation. v 

Herodotus frankly, and ingenuously, related to 
the Greeks, what the Egyptians had told him ; 
but how is it, that in speaking to him of nothing 
but prodigies, they neglected to mention those re- 
markable plagues of Egypt, and that magic com- 
bat, between the minister of the God of the Jews, 
and the sorcerers of Pharaoh ; and also of a whole 



OF EGYPT. 121 

army, swallowed up by the Red Sea, the waters 
rising on each side, like mountains, that the He- 
brews might pass over ; which, on returning to their 
place, overwhelmed the Egyptians ? It was, un- 
questionably, the greatest event in the history of 
the world : but neither Herodotus, nor Manethon, 
nor, Eratosthenes, nor any of the Greeks, such 
great lovers of the marvellous, and in constant 
communication with Egypt, have said a word 
about these great miracles, destined to occupy the 
attention of all generations! We are not led to 
these observations by any desire to invalidate the 
testimony of the Hebrew books, which we respect, 
as we ought. We confine ourselves, merely to the 
expression of our astonishment, at the silence of 
all the Egyptians, and all the Greeks, upon the 
subject. But, God would not, probably, suffer, 
so divine a history, to be transmitted to us, by any 
profane hand. 



122 



CHAPTER XX. 

OF THE LANGUAGE OF THE EGYPTIANS, AND 
OF THEIR SYMBOLS. 

The language of the Egyptians has no affinity 
whatever, with that of any of the nations of Asia. 
We do not find among these people either the 
word Adonai or Adonijah, or Bal or Baal, terms 
which signify " The Lord;' — nor Mitra, which 
means " The Sun," among the Persians; nor 
Melch, or Melk, which signifies "King" in Syria; 
nor Shak, Schach, or Shah, which signifies the 
same thing among the Indians and the Persians. 
We see, on the contrary, that Pharaoh was the 
Egyptian word for " King:" Oshireth, (Osiris,) 
corresponded to the Mitra of the Persians ; and 
the common word On, signified the sun. The 
Chaldean priests were called Mag — Magi ; those 
of the Egyptians Choen, according to Diodorus of 
Sicily. The hieroglyphicks, and the alphabetick 
characters of Egypt, which time has spared to us, 
and which we yet see engraven on their obelisks, 
bear no kind of similarity to those of any other 
people. 

Before men had invented hieroglyphicks, they 



LANGUAGE, ETC. OF THE EGYPTIANS. 123 

undoubtedly had representative signs of some 
sort ; for what, in fact, could the first men have 
done, more than all others, who have found them- 
selves similarly situated ? If a child finds himself 
in a country, of the language of which he is igno- 
rant, he speaks by signs ; if he is not understood, 
he describes on a wall, with a piece of chalk or 
charcoal, the things of which he stands in need, 
provided he has the least sagacity. 

Every one, therefore, at first, gave some kind of 
rude delineation of what he meant to express ; and 
the art of drawing, without doubt, had prece- 
dence of the art of writing. It was in this way the 
Mexicans and Peruvians wrote ; they had not car- 
ried the art any further. The same method, no 
doubt, prevailed among all the first people, reduced 
to order and government. In the course of time, 
symbolical figures were invented : two hands in- 
terwoven, signified peace ; arrows, represented 
war; an eye, signified the Divinity; a sceptre, 
royalty ; and the lines uniting these figures, were 
expressive of short sentences. 

At length, the Chinese invented characters, ex- 
pressive of each word of their language. But 
what people invented the alphabet, which, by 
placing before our eyes, the different sounds ca- 
pable of articulation, affords a facility to the com- 
bination of words of every description, by writing, 
or expression ? Who thus instructed men to in- 
scribe so easily, their thoughts ? We forbear re- 



124 LANGUAGE OF THE EGYPTIANS, 

peating all the tales of the ancients respecting this 
art, which eternizes all arts. We shall merely 
observe, that it must have been the work of ages. 

The Choens, or priests of Egypt, continued, for 
a long time, to write in hieroglyphicks ; which is 
forbidden in the second article of the Hebrew law. 
When the people of Egypt had acquired a know- 
ledge of alphabetick characters, the priests, or 
Choens, adopted others, different from them, which 
they called sacred; — in order to raise a barrier, 
betwixt them, and the people. The Magi, and 
the Bramins, did the same ; so much has it been 
considered necessary, to act mysteriously towards 
men, in order to govern them. Not only did the 
Choens possess characters, known only to them, 
but they even preserved, and adhered to, the an- 
cient language of Egypt, when time had changed 
that of the common people. 

Manethon, cited by Eusebius, speaks of two 
columns, or pillars, engraved by Thaut, the first 
Hermes, in characters, appropriate to the sacred 
language. But who can tell in what time this an- 
cient Hermes lived ? 

The Egyptians were, in particular, most scru- 
pulously tenacious of their early symbols. It is 
somewhat curious to see, on their monuments, a 
serpent biting his tail, representative of the twelve 
months of the year ; and these twelve months are 
each expressed by animals, which have no con- 
nection with the signs of the Zodiack, in use among 



AND THEIR SYMBOLS. 125 

us. The five days, over and above the twelve 
months, are afterwards added in the shape of a 
little serpent, upon which five figures are repre- 
sented : — a hawk, a man, a dog, a lion, and an 
ibis. They have been designed by Kirker, from 
copies preserved at Rome. Thus, we see, that in 
ancient times, symbol, and allegory, were predo- 
minant. / 



126 



CHAPTER XXI. 

OF THE MONUMENTS OF THE EGYPTIANS. 

It is certain, that after the lapse of ages, when 
the Egyptians fertilized the soil, by draining their 
large rivers, when villages began to give place to 
large and opulent cities ; then, the necessary arts 
being perfected, the arts of ostentation and em- 
bellishment, began to be had in repute. At that 
time, were found sovereigns, who employed their 
subjects, with the Arabs adjoining the lake Sir- 
bon, to build their palaces, and pyramidical tombs : 
in hewing huge masses of stone in the quarries of 
Upper Egypt, and embarking them on rafts, to 
Memphis, for the purpose of erecting massive co- 
lumns of large flat stones, without either taste or 
proportion. They were acquainted with the great, 
but not with the beautiful. They instructed the 
first Greeks, but, subsequently, the Greeks be- 
came superior to them in every thing, when they 
had built the city of Alexandria. 

It is a great misfortune, that in the war with 
Caesar, one-half of the celebrated library of the 
Ptolemies was burnt, and the other half served to 



MONUMENTS OF THE EGYPTIANS. 127 

heat the baths of the Mussulmans, when Egypt 
was subjugated by Omar. We should at least, 
have discovered the origin of the many supersti- 
tions, with which this people were infected ; and 
the chaos of their philosophy, with a few of their 
antiquities and sciences. 

They must, necessarily, have enjoyed ages of 
peace ; or their princes could never have found, 
either time or leisure, to construct those vast and 
prodigious buildings, of which, the greater part 
still exists. 

Their pyramids were erected at an immense ex- 
pence of time and money ; and, a large part of 
the nation, with the numerous foreign slaves in the 
country, must have been a long time employed in 
these immense works. They were the works of 
despotism, vanity, slavery, and superstition. In 
fine, no other than a despotic monarch could drive 
nature to such extremes. England, for example, 
is much more powerful than Egypt ever was ; 
but, could a king of England employ his people, 
in the erection of such monuments as these ? 
Vanity, no doubt, operated as one powerful ingre- 
dient, in their construction. 

The kings of Egypt were rivals of each other, 
in the erection of the most beautiful pyramid, in 
honour either of his father, or himself ; and slavery, 
procured the hands of the workman. And, with 
regard to superstition, we should remember, that 
these pyramids were tombs ; and, that the Cho- 



128 MONUMENTS OF THE EGYPTIANS. 

chamatim, or Choens, of Egypt, — that is to say, 
the priests, — had persuaded the nation that the 
soul would return to, and reanimate the body, at 
the expiration of a thousand years. They wished, 
therefore, to preserve the body, free from all cor- 
ruption, for the whole of this thousand years. It 
was on this account, that they were so scrupu- 
lously careful in embalming it ; and, to protect it 
from all accidents, they enclosed it in a mass of 
stone, without an aperture, or outlet of any kind. 
The kings, and great men, raised their pyramids, 
or tombs, in a form the least liable to the injuries 
of the weather. Their bodies have been, there- 
fore, preserved, for a period, beyond all human 
hopes, and calculations. We have, at this day, 
Egyptian mummies more than four thousand years 
old. The bodies have endured as long as the 
pyramids themselves. 

The opinion of a resurrection after the expiration 
of ten centuries, — or a thousand years, — was sub- 
sequently imbibed by the Greeks, disciples of the 
Egyptians ; and afterwards by the Romans, dis- 
ciples of the Greeks. We find it again, in the 
sixteenth book of the iEneid ; which is but a de- 
scription of the mysteries of Isis, and of Ceres 
Eleusis : — 

" Has omnes ubi mifle rotam volvere per annos 
Lethseum ad fluvium Deus advocat agmine magno ; 
Scilicet ut memores supera et convexa revisant. " 

This doctrine afterwards found its way among 



MONUMENTS OF THE EGYPTIANS. 129 

the Christians, who established the reign of a 
thousand years ; and the sect of the Millenarians 
has again revived it. In this manner, several opi- 
nions have made the tour of the world. 

We have said enough, to shew, with what mo- 
tives these pyramids were built. It is needless, 
here to repeat, what has been said of their archi- 
tecture and dimensions. We are examining only 
the history of the human mind. 



K 



130 



CHAPTER XXII. 

OF THE RITES OF THE EGYPTIANS, AND OF 
CIRCUMCISION. 

Did the Egyptians, at first, acknowledge a God 
supreme ? If this question had been put to any 
of the common people, they would not have known 
what answer to give ; — if to young students of 
Egyptian theology, they would have discoursed a 
long time without coming to a conclusion; — 
but, if the question had been put to any of those 
sages consulted by Pythagoras, or Plato, or .Plu- 
tarch, they would have answered, plainly;] that 
they worshipped only one God. As the ground- 
work of their opinions, they would have referred 
to the ancient inscription on the statue of Isis, — 
" I am that I am ; " and to this other, — " I am all 
that has been, and all that shall be ; no mortal can 
lift up my veil." They would also have pointed to 
the globe, placed over the door of the temple of 
Memphis, which represented the unity of the Divine 
Nature, under the name of Knef. Also, the name, 
esteemed the most sacred by the Egyptians, was 
that which the Hebrews adopted, — Y-ha-ho. It is 



RITES OF THE EGYPTIANS. 131 

variously pronounced ; but Clement of Alexandria 
assures us, in his Stromates, that all those who en- 
tered into the temple of Serapis, were obliged to 
wear on their persons, in a conspicuous situation, 
the name of "i-ha-ho," or " i-ha-hou" which signi- 
fies " The God Eternal." Of this, the Arabs have 
retained only the syllable hou ; which was, subse- 
quently, adopted by the Turks ; who pronounce 
it, with still greater respect, than the word Allah ; 
for, they frequently use the word Allah, in com- 
mon conversation ; but the word hou, they never 
use but in their prayers. It may not be inappro- 
priate, here to remark, that when the Turkish am- 
bassador, Said EfFendi, saw represented, at Paris, 
the piece entitled " Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme," 
and in that laughable part, where, in acting the 
part of a Turk, he heard the sacred word hou pro- 
nounced with derision, accompanied by silly and 
ridiculous gestures, he looked upon the whole 
entertainment, as a most wicked and abominable 
profanation. 

To resume. — The priests of Egypt cherished a 
sacred ox, — a sacred dog, — and a sacred crocodile ! 
Yes, — and so had the Romans their sacred geese ; 
they had gods of all sorts ; and the devotees had 
among their household gods, the god of the close- 
stool, — Deum stercutium ; and the god Pet, — Deum 
crepitum : but they were not the less worshippers 
of the Deum optimum maximum ; the Lord of gods, 
and men. In what country do we not meet with 

* k2 



132 RITES OF THE EGYPTIANS. 

crowds of weak and superstitious persons ; and 
but few possessed of wisdom and discernment ? 

It is particularly worthy of notice, both with 
respect to Egypt, and all other nations, that they 
have never been constant and uniform in their 
opinions ; like as, they have never persevered uni- 
formly in their laws ; notwithstanding the attach- 
ment of men to their ancient customs, and usages. 
There is nothing immutable, but geometry ; every 
thing else is subject to continual variation and 
change. 

The learned dispute ; and will continue to dis- 
pute. One asserts, that the people, in ancient 
times, were all idolaters ; the other denies it. One 
says, that they worshipped only one God, without 
image or representation ; the other, that they wor- 
shipped a plurality of gods, under various images 
and representations ; they are both in the right : 
we have only to distinguish between the times and 
the men, which have changed ; nothing was ever 
fixed and invariable. When the Ptolemies, and the 
chief priests, made a jest of the ox, Apis, the peo- 
ple fell on their knees before it ! 

Juvenal says, that the Egyptians worshipped 
onions : but, no other historian has repeated it. 
There is a great deal of difference between a sacred 
onion, and an onion god ; — we do not worship 
every thing that is placed, or consecrated, on an 
altar. We read in Cicero, that men who had 
adopted all manner of superstitions, and those of 



RITES OF THE EGYPTIANS. 133 

the grossest nature, had not yet arrived at that of 
eating their gods ; and that this is the only ab- 
surdity, from which they were free. 

Does circumcision originate with the Egyptians, 
the Arabs, or the Ethiopians ? We cannot tell. 
Let those who can, decide the point. All that we 
know, is, that the priests of antiquity were accus- 
tomed to imprint on their bodies, marks of their 
consecration ; like as the Roman soldiers, in an 
after period, were marked in the hand with a red- 
hot iron. In one place, those who sacrificed, cut 
and slashed their bodies ; as was, subsequently, 
the custom with the priests of Bellona. In another, 
they made themselves eunuchs, after the manner 
of the priests of Cybele. 

It was not from a desire to preserve their health 
(as has been asserted), that the Ethiopians, the 
Arabs, and the Egyptians, circumcised themselves. 
It has been said that their foreskins were too long. 
But, if we may judge of a nation, by an individual, 
we have seen a young Ethiopian, who, from not 
having been born in his own country, had not been 
circumcised ; and we can assert, positively, that 
his foreskin was precisely the same as ours. 

We cannot tell what nation first adopted the 
ceremony of carrying in procession the Kteis and 
the Phallum ; that is to say, the distinctive signs 
of male and female animals ; a ceremony, properly 
considered as indecent, in the present day, though 
formerly held sacred. The Egyptians had this 



134 RITES OF THE EGYPTIANS. 

custom ; they offered to the Gods the first fruits ; 
and sacrificed to them the most precious and va- 
luable of what they possessed. It appeared rea- 
sonable and just, that the priests should offer up a 
trifling part of the organ of generation, to those, by 
whom all were engendered. The Ethiopians, and 
the Arabs, also circumcised their daughters, by 
cutting off a very small part of theinympha ; which 
clearly proves that neither health, nor cleanliness, 
led to the institution of this ceremony ; for assur- 
edly an uncircumcised female is, in all respects, 
as fit and proper, as a circumcised one. 

When the priests of Egypt had consecrated this 
operation, their initiated subjected themselves to 
it also; but, in the course of time, it was aban- 
doned by these ; and remained with the priests 
alone. It does not appear that either of the Ptole- 
mies were circumcised; and the Roman authors 
never branded the Egyptians, with the name, or 
title, of "Apella," which they bestowed upon the 
Jews. These Jews had adopted part of the Egyp- 
tian ceremonies ; and, with it, the rite of circum- 
cision. They have always adhered to it; and so 
have the Arabs, and the Ethiopians. The Turks 
also submitted themselves to it, although, it is not 
enjoined in the Alcoran. In fact, it is merely an 
ancient ceremony, originating in superstition, and 
preserved by custom. 



135 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

OF THE MYSTERIES OF THE EGYPTIANS. 

We do not pretend to say what people were the 
first inventors, or instituters, of those mysteries, 
which were in such great repute, from the Eu- 
phrates, to the Tiber. The Egyptians do not tell 
us, with whom the mysteries of Isis originate. 
Zoroaster has the credit, of having established 
them, in Persia ; and Cadmus, and Inachus, in 
Greece ; Orpheus, in Thrace ; and Minos, in Cr£te. 
It is certain, that these mysteries announced a 
future life; because, Celsus says to the Chris- 
tians, — " You boast of believing in everlasting 
" punishments ; but do not all the ministers of 
" mysteries announce the same thing to the ini- 
" tiated ?" 

The Greeks, who adopted so many of the cus- 
toms of the Egyptians, — (their Tartharoth, of 
which they made Tartarus, — the lake of which 
they made their Acheron — and the boatman 
Charon, of whom they made a pilot for the dead,) 
had not invented their celebrated mysteries of 
Eleusinia, till some time after those of Isis. But, 



136 MYSTERIES OF THE EGYPTIANS. 

whether the mysteries of Zoroaster, had, or had 
not, precedence of those of the Egyptians, is what 
no one can venture to affirm. Both the one, and 
the other, were of the very highest antiquity ; and 
all the Greek and Latin authors who have written 
on the subject, agree, in asserting, that the unity 
of the godhead, the immortality of the soul, and 
rewards and punishments after death, were all 
duly announced, in these sacred ceremonies. 

It is extremely probable that the Egyptians, 
having once established these mysteries, preserved 
the rites and ceremonies attached to them; for, 
notwithstanding their levity and mutability of cha- 
racter, they were firm and constant in superstition. 
The prayer that we find in Apuleius, when Lucius 
is initiated into the mysteries of Isis, is, we pre- 
sume, the ancient form of prayer. — " The heavenly 
" powers serve thee ; — hell is subject unto thee ; 
" — the universe turns beneath thy hand ; — thy 
" feet tread on Tartarus ; — the planets answer to 
'thy call; — the seasons return at thy com- 
:< mand ; — the elements obey thee," &c. &c. 

Can we possibly have stronger proof than this, 
that the Egyptians, in the midst of all their detest- 
able superstitions, yet acknowledged, the unity of 
one only God ? 



137 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

OF THE GREEKS I OF THEIR ANCIENT DE- 
LUGES I OF THEIR ALPHABETS: AND OF 

THEIR GENIUS. 

Greece is a little mountainous country, inter- 
sected by the sea, of nearly the extent of Great 
Britain. Every thing in this country attests the 
physical revolutions which it has experienced. 
The islands which surround it, sufficiently indi- 
cate, by the close bodies of rocks bordering on 
them, as well as by the trifling depth of the sea, 
and the herbs and roots which grow beneath its 
waters, that they have been detached from the 
continent. The Gulfs of Eubcea, Chalcis, Argos, 
Corinth, Actiuin, and Messina, convince the spec- 
tator that the sea has made encroachments on the 
land. The beds of sea-shells, found in the moun- 
tains enclosing the celebrated valley of Tempe, are 
evident proofs of some ancient inundation. And, 
the deluges of Ogyges, and of Deucalion, which 
have given rise to so many fables, are, therefore, 
founded in historical truth. This is, probably, the 
cause of the Greeks being so modern a people. 



138 OF THE GREEKS. 

These great revolutions replunged them into a 
state of rudeness and barbarism, when the nations 
of Asia, and Egypt, were already in a flourishing 
condition. 

We leave, to more learned commentators, the 
task, of proving, that the three children of Noah, 
who were the sole inhabitants of the earth, divided 
it amongst themselves ; and travelled, each, two or 
three thousand leagues from the other ; laying, 
every where, the foundation of powerful empires ; 
and, that Javan, Noah's grandson, peopled Greece, 
as he passed through, on his way to Italy : that, it 
is from him, the Greeks take the name of Ionians ; 
because, Ion sent colonies on the coasts of Asia 
Minor ; and, that this Ion was, evidently, Javan, 
— which it becomes, by merely changing / into 
Ja, — and on into van. These stories are related 
to children, who ridicule them, and treat them as 
romantic. 

" Nee pu'eri credunt nisi qui nondum sere lavantur." 

The deluge of Ogyges is commonly understood, 
to have happened, about twelve hundred years be- 
fore the first Olympiad. The first who speaks of 
it, is Acesilas ; cited by Eusebius, in his Evange- 
lical Preparation; and, by George le Sincelle. 
Greece, say they, was almost deserted, for two 
hundred years, after this irruption of the sea, into 
the country. It is, nevertheless, pretended, that, 
at the same time, there were established govern- 



OF THE GREEKS. 139 

ments at Sicyon, and Argos : we are favoured even 
with the names of the first magistrates of these 
little provinces ; and they are called Basiloi, which 
corresponds with the word Princes. Let us not 
waste our time in penetrating these useless ob- 
scurities. 

There was another inundation, in the time of 
Deucalion, the son of Prometheus. The fable 
adds, that the only remaining inhabitants of these 
climates, were Deucalion and Pyrrha ; who begat 
men, and repeopled the country, by throwing 
stones behind them, between their legs. In this 
way, the human race increased, much more ra- 
pidly, than rabbits in a warren. 

If we may believe what is advanced by such 
wise men, as the Jesuit Petau, and others, one, 
only, of Noah's sons, produced a race, which, in . 
two hundred and eighty-Jive years, amounted to six 
hundred and twenty-three thousand six hundred 
and twelve millions of men ! The calculation 
seems rather high. In the present day, we are so 
unfortunate, that, out of twenty-six marriages, it 
seldom happens, that the offspring of more than 
four, live to become parents. This calculation is 
extracted from the registers of some of our largest 
cities. Of a thousand children, born in one year, 
there, hardly ever, remain, six hundred, at the end 
of twenty years. Let us be on our guard, against 
attaching any credit to what Petau, or those that 
are like him, may say. Petau, no doubt, found it 



140 OF THE GREEKS. 

as easy to make children by a stroke of the pen, as 
Deucalion and Pyrrha, to people Greece, by throw- 
ing stones between their legs. 

It is well known, that Greece was the country 
of fable, and romance; and almost every fable 
was the origin of some form of worship, — of a tem- 
ple, — and a public festival. By what excess of 
folly, or absurd obstinacy, is it, that the compilers 
of so many enormous volumes have attempted to 
prove, that a public festival, established in com- 
memoration of an event, is an evident demonstra- 
tion of the truth of that event ? What ! is it, 
because they celebrated, in a temple, young 
Bacchus coming out of Jupiter's thigh, that we are 
to believe, that Jupiter had, in fact, kept the said 
Bacchus in his thigh! And we are to believe, 
also, that Cadmus and his wife were changed into 
serpents in Bceotia, because the Boeotians comme- 
morated that event in their ceremonies ! And the 
temple of Castor and Pollux, at Rome will, we 
presume, be considered as decisive proof, that the 
gods descended upon earth, to fight in favour of 
the Romans ! 

We may, with much greater propriety, con- 
clude, when we see an ancient festival, or an an- 
tique temple, that they are the works of error and 
superstition. In the course of two or three cen- 
turies, the error gains strength, and becomes cele- 
brated ; at length, it is considered sacred ; and 
temples are built, to chimeras, and idle fancies. 



OF THE GREEKS. 141 

/ In historical times, on the contrary, the most 
/noble truths find but few disciples ; the greatest 
men die without honour.' The Themistocles, Ci- 
mons, Miltiades, Aristides, and Phocions, of the 
day, are persecuted; whilst Perseus, Bacchus, 
and other fantastick personages, have temples 
erected to their honour. 

We may give credit to a people, who relate 
circumstances to their own disadvantage ; when, 
what they relate, is attended with probability; 
and, in no respect, contrary to the ordinary course 
of nature. 

The Athenians, scattered over a barren and un- 
fruitful country, inform us, that an Egyptian, 
named Cecrops, exiled from his own country, gave 
them their first institutions. This appears rather 
surprising, as the Egyptians were not navigators. 
But, it is possible, that the Phoenicians, who had 
intercourse with all nations, may have brought this 
Cecrops into Attica. It is very certain, that the 
Greeks did not adopt the Egyptian letters; for 
there is not the least resemblance between them. 
The Phoenicians brought them their first alphabet ; 
which, then, consisted of only sixteen characters ; 
which are, evidently, the same. To these, the 
Phoenicians, subsequently, added eight other let- 
ters; which the Greeks likewise adopted. 

An alphabet may be considered as an incon- 
testable monument, of the country from which a 



142 OF THE GREEKS. 

nation has acquired its first learning. It appears 
still further probable, that the Phoenicians worked 
the silver mines of Attica ; as, they unquestionably 
did those of Spain. Merchants were the first 
preceptors of those very Greeks, from whom, so 
many nations subsequently derived instruction. 

This people, as barbarous as they were in the 
days of Ogyges, appeared born with organs more 
adapted to the cultivation of the fine arts, than all 
other people. They displayed in their nature, 
the most refined cunning and acuteness ; their 
language is a proof of it ; for, even before they 
knew how to write, their language was distin- 
guished for a union of the most harmonious conso- 
nants and vowels ; previously, unknown to all the 
people of Asia. 

Certainly, the name of Knath, which, according 
to Sanchoniathon, denotes "Phoenicians," is not 
so harmonious as that of Hellenos, or Graius. — 
Argos, Athens, Lacedsemon, and Olympia, sound 
better in the ear than the city of Reheboth. So- 
phia — wisdom, is more harmonious than Shoche- 
math, in Syriack, and in Hebrew. Basileus, 
king, sounds better than Melk or Shack. Com- 
pare the names of Agamemnon, Diomedes, and 
Idomeneus, with those of Mardokempad, Simor- 
dak, Sohasduch, and Niricassolahssar. Josephus, 
himself, in his book against Apion, acknowledges, 
that the Greeks could not pronounce the barba- 



OF THE GREEKS. 143 

rous name of Jerusalem ; pronounced by the Jews, 
Hershalaim : this word stuck in the throat of an 
Athenian ; and, it was the Greeks, who changed 
Hershalaim, into Jerusalem. 

The Greeks transformed all the rude Syriack, 
Persian, and Egyptian, names. — Of Coresh, they 
made Cyrus ; of Isheth and Oshireth, they made 
Isis and Osiris ; of Moph, they made Memphis ; 
and, at length, they accustomed the barbarians to 
pronounce in the same manner ; so that, in the 
time of the Ptolemies, the cities, and gods, of 
Egypt, retained the Grecian names alone. 

It was the Greeks, who gave names to the Indus 
and the Ganges. The Ganges, in the language of 
the Bramins, was called Sannoubi ; and the Indus, 
Sombadipo. These are the ancient names which 
we meet with in the Vedam. 

The Greeks, in extending themselves along the 
coasts of Asia Minor, carried harmony along with 
them. Their Homer was, in all probability, born 
at Smyrna. 

Beautiful architecture, the most perfect sculp- 
ture, painting, good music, correct poetry, true 
eloquence, a just method of writing history, and in 
short, philosophy itself, although rude and obscure, 
were attained by other nations from the Greeks. 
Thus, those who came last, excelled their prede- 
cessors in every thing. 

All the beautiful statues in Egypt, were of Gre- 
cian workmanship. The ancient Balbek, in Syria, 



144 OF THE GREEKS. 

and the ancient Palmyra, in Arabia; were in- 
debted, for their palaces, and their magnificent 
and well-built temples, to the Grecian artists ; 
whom their sovereigns employed, for the purpose. 
We see, only, the remains of barbarism, (as has 
been already observed) in the ruins of Persepolis, 
built by the Persians ; whilst the monuments of 
Balbek and Palmyra, beneath heaps of rubbish, 
exhibit masterpieces of architecture. 



145 



CHAPTER XXV. 

OF THE GREEK LEGISLATORS OF MINOS AND 

ORPHEUS AND OF THE IMMORTALITY OF THE 

SOUL. 

Let compilers continue to favour us with pom- 
pous and exaggerated accounts of the battles of 
Marathon and Salamis; — these great exploits, are 
sufficiently well known. Let others repeat the 
story of a grandson of Noah, named Settim, being 
king of Macedon ; because, in the first book of 
Maccabees, it is said, that Alexander came out of 
the country of Kittim, or,Chittim : — we have other 
objects in view, the elucidation of which we con- 
sider of much greater importance. 

Minos lived about the time in which we place 
the existence of Moses ; which circumstance, has 
led the learned Huet, bishop of Avranches, to 
maintain, in his works, that Minos, born in Cr&te, 
and Moses, born on the confines of Egypt, were 
one, and the same person. This assertion, how- 
ever, (notwithstanding its absurdity,) has met 
with no partisans. 

We have not here to deal with a Greek fable ; 
Minos, indubitably, was a legislative king. The 
celebrated marbles of Paros, the most precious 

L 



146 GREEK LEGISLATORS. 

monuments of antiquity, (and for which we are 
indebted to the English) fix his birth, as having 
occurred 1482 years before our vulgar era. Homer, 
in his Odyssey, calls him " The wise confidant of 
God. " Flavius Josephus does not hesitate to say, 
that he (Minos) received his laws from some god. 
This seems rather strange, in a Jew ; who, one 
would imagine, ought not to acknowledge any 
other god, than his own ; unless indeed, he enter- 
tained the common opinion of the Romans, and 
all the early people of antiquity, who admitted the 
existence of all the gods of other nations. 

It is evident, that Minos was a very severe le- 
gislator ; since, he is represented, after his death, 
as judging the souls of the dead, in the infernaL 
regions, or hell ; it is also evident, that the belief 
of another life was, then, generally entertained, 
and spread over a large part of Asia, and Europe. 

Orpheus is a personage, no less real than Mi- 
nos; it is true, the marbles of Paros make no 
mention of him ; probably because he was not born 
in Grecia proper, but in Thrace. The existence 
of the first Orpheus, has been doubted by some ; 
owing to a passage in Cicero's excellent work, on 
the nature of the Gods. Cotta, one of his interlo- 
cutors, pretends, that Aristotle did not believe, 
that this Orpheus had ever been among the Greeks ; 
but, Aristotle does not say a word on the subject, 
in any of his works that we have seen. Besides, 
the opinion of Cotta, is not that of Cicero. A 



GREEK LEGISLATORS. 147 

hundred ancient authors speak of Orpheus. The 
mysteries, bearing his name, are a sufficient evi- 
dence of his existence, and Pausanias, the most 
correct and valuable author the Greeks ever had, 
says, that his verses were chaunted in their reli- 
gious ceremonies, in preference to those of Homer, 
who did not live, till a long time after Orpheus. 
We are well aware, that he did not descend into 
hell ; but, even this fable proves, that hell, or the 
infernal regions, formed a part of the theology of 
those remote times. 

The vague, and indefinite, opinion, of the per- 
manency of the soul, after death ; the ethereal 
soul ; the shadow of the body ; manes ; a fickle 
breath ; the incomprehensible, but living soul ; 
and, the belief of rewards and punishments in an- 
other world ; were admitted, and established, 
throughout all Greece ; in the islands ; in Asia ; 
and in Egypt. 

The Jews alone, appear to have been ignorant 
of this mystery; the book of their laws does not 
make the least mention of, or allusion to it. We 
read of nothing, therein, but temporal rewards and 
punishments. In the book of Exodus, it is said, 
" Honour thy father and mother, that thy days 
" may be long in the land which Adonai (the 
" Lord) giveth thee." But, in the book of the Zend, 
we find, " Honour thy father and mother, that 
" thou mayest merit heaven." 

Bishop Warburton, who nas demonstrated, that 
l 2 



148 GREEK LEGISLATORS. 

the Pentateuch makes no mention of the immor- 
tality of the soul, attempts to prove, that this 
dogma was unnecessary, in theocracy. Arnaud, 
in his apology of Port-royal, expresses himself 
thus : " It is the height of ignorance to question 
" this truth, which is one of the most common, 
" and which is attested by all the Fathers, that the 
f promises of the Old Testament were merely 
" temporal, and earthly; and, that the Jews wor- 
" shipped God, for temporal blessings, only." To 
this, it is objected, that if the Persians, the Arabs* 
the Syrians, the Indians, the Egyptians, and the 
Greeks, believed in the immortality of the soul, 
and a life to come, with eternal rewards and 
punishments, the Hebrews might well also believe 
them. And, that if all the legislators of antiquity 
established wise laws on this basis, Moses might 
also have done the same ; for that, if he were igno- 
rant of such useful tenets, he was not worthy to 
be the leader of a nation ; and that, if he knew 
them, and did not promulgate them, he was still 
more unworthy to be so. 

To these arguments it is replied, that God, 
(whose organ Moses was) vouchsafed to propor- 
tion his measures to the ignorance of the Jews. 
This knotty point we shall not attempt to discuss ; 
and entertaining a due respect for every thing di- 
vine, we continue our examinations of the history 
of mankind. 



149 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

OF THE GRECIAN SECTS. 

It appears that, among the Egyptians, the Per- 
sians, the Chaldeans, and the Indians, there was 
but one sect of philosophers. The priests of all 
these nations, being of a particular race, or kind, 
that, which was called wisdom, belonged only to 
that race. Their sacred language, of which the 
common people were ignorant, rendered them the 
sole depositaries of science. But in Greece, — more 
free and happy Greece, — the acquisition of know- 
ledge, was open to every one ; and every one 
gave free vent to his ideas ; which rendered the 
Greeks the most ingenious and skilful, of all the 
people of the earth. From the same cause, the 
English, of the present day, are the most enlight- 
ened of all people: because, in England, the minds 
of men are free, and they may think with im- 
punity. 

The Stoicks worshipped one universal soul, or 
spirit, of the world, in which the souls of all be- 
came again involved. The Epicureans denied 
that there was any soul ; and acknowledged none 



l50 OF THE GRECIAN SECTS. 

but physical principles. They maintained, that 
the gods did not interfere in the affairs of men ; 
and the Epicureans were suffered to enjoy their 
opinions, in peace; as they left the gods to them. 

From the time of Thales, to the time of Plato 
and Aristotle, the schools resounded with philoso- 
phical disputes; which, at once, disclose the saga- 
city, and folly, of the human mind ; its power, 
and weakness. They, almost always, argued, 
without comprehending each other ; as has been, 
but too frequently, the case with us, since the 
thirteenth century : at which time, we began to 
be a reasoning people. 

The reputation which Plato enjoyed, is not at 
all surprising ; all the philosophers were unintel- 
ligible, and he, equally so, with the rest : but, 
Plato expressed himself, with more dignity and 
eloquence. What success, however, would attend 
him, in the present day, if he appeared among 
men of common sense, and were to address them 
in these beautiful words, extracted from his Ti- 
meus? " Of the substance indivisible and divi- 
'■ sible, God composed a third kind of substance, 
" between the two, partaking both of the nature of 
" itself and the other; then taking these three na- 
" tures together, he mixed them all together, into 
" one form only, and compelled the nature of the 
" soul to blend with the nature of itself, and hav- 
" ing mixed them with the substance, and of 
" these three having made an agent, or member, 



OF THE GRECIAN SECTS. 151 

" he divided it into proper portions ; each of these 
" portions partook of itself and of the other; and 
" of the substance he made his division." 

He subsequently gives us the same enlightened 
exposition of Pythagoras's works. It must be ad- 
mitted, that every rational and enlightened indi- 
vidual, who had read " Locke on Human Under- 
" standing," would intreat Plato to go to his 
school. 

Notwithstanding this bombast, and nonsense, 
of the worthy Plato, we, here and there, meet 
with some very beautiful ideas, in his works. The 
Greeks, had so much genius, that they abused it. 
But, what redounds to their honour, is, that none 
of their governments ever imposed any restraint 
upon the thoughts, and opinions, of men. There 
is only Socrates, of whom it is said, that his 
opinions cost him his life ; and he was less the 
victim of his opinions, than of a violent party, 
formed against him. The Athenians, indeed, com- 
pelled him to drink the juice of hemlock ; but, we 
know, how very much they repented of it; and, 
that they punished his accusers, and erected a 
temple, in honour of him, whom they had con- 
demned! Athens gave full scope, and perfect li- 



berty, not only to philosophy, but to every variety 
of religionj. 

It is unquestionable, that the Greeks acknow- 
ledged a Supreme Being; in common with all 
the nations, of whom we have spoken. Their 



152 OF THE GRECIAN SECTS. 

Zeus — their Jupiter, was the master of gods and 
men. This opinion underwent no change, from 
the time of Orpheus ; we find it repeated again, a 
hundred times, by Homer : the other gods were 
all inferior. They may be compared to the Pe^ 
riscii of the Persians, or the Genii of the other 
Eastern nations. All the philosophers, except the 
Stratonicians and Epicureans, acknowledged the 
Supreme Architect of the world, the Demiourgos. 

| We need not fear, of giving too much weight to 
this great historical truth : that human nature, in 
its infancy, adored some power, some being, who 
was considered far superior to mortals ; whether 
he were represented in the sun, moon, or stars ; 
and human nature, in a state of cultivation, wor- 
shipped (notwithstanding all its weaknesses and 
errors) One Supreme God, the Lord of the elements, 
and of the other gods ; and that all civilized na- 
tions, from India to the extremity of Europe, be- 
lieved, in general, in a life to come ; although 
several sects of philosophers maintained contrary 
opinions. 



153 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

OF ZALEUCUS, AND SOME OTHER LEGISLATORS. 

Every moralist and legislator may be challenged 
to produce any thing more beautiful and useful 
than the exordium of the laws of Zaleucus, who 
lived before the time of Pythagoras, and was the 
first magistrate of the Locrians. " Every citizen 
" must be convinced of the existence of a divinity. 
" It is sufficient to observe the order and harmony 
* f of the universe, to be convinced that chance 
" could not have produced it. Every one should 
" subdue his soul; purify it ; and discard all evil 
" from it ; from a conviction, that God cannot be 
" well, or properly, served, by the perverse and 
" wicked ; and that He is not like those miserable 
" mortals, who suffer themselves to be entreat- 
" ed by magnificent ceremonies, and sumptuous 
" offerings. Virtue, and a constant desire to do 
" good, can alone please Him. Let every one, 
" therefore, endeavour to be just, in his principles 
" and practice; for, by such conduct only, can he 
" be beloved of the Divinity. Every one should 



154 OF ZALEUCUS, AND 

" dread the commission of any action, which leads 
" to infamy and disgrace ; much more, than that, 
" which leads to poverty. He must be consider- 
" ed the best citizen, who abandons fortune for 
" justice ; but those, whose violent passions in- 
" cite them to evil — men, women, citizens, inha- 
" bitants in general, should be warned to remember 
" the Gods ; and, the severe judgments which 
" they exercise, against the guilty: let them call 
" to remembrance, the hour of death ; that fatal 
" hour, which awaits us all ; when the remem- 
" brance of our faults, will bring with it remorse, 
" and, the vain repentance, of not having regu- 
" lated all our actions by the rules of equity. 

" Every one should so conduct himself during 
" every moment of his life, as if that moment were 
" his last ; but, if an evil genius entices him to sin, 
" let him fly to the foot of the altar, and pray to 
" Heaven, to drive far from him this evil genius ; 
" let him, above all, seek the society of just and 
" virtuous men ; whose good counsels will re- 
u claim him, and enable him to retrace the 
*' paths of virtue, by holding up to his view, the 
" goodness of God, and his vengeance." 

No! there is nothing, in all antiquity, to be pre- 
ferred to this simple and sublime piece ; dictated 
by reason and virtue ; stripped of all enthusiasm, 
and, of that extravagant colouring, which good 
sense disavows. 

Charondas, who succeeded Zaleucus, expressed 



OTHER LEGISLATORS. 155 

himself in the same way. The Platos, Ciceros, 
and divine Antonines, subsequently, held no other 
language ; and similar doctrines are expounded 
in a hundred places, in the works of Julian ; who 
had the misfortune to abandon the Christian reli- 
gion, but who did so much honour to the natural ; 
— Julian, at once the scandal of our church, and 
the glory of the Roman empire. " We ought 
" (says he) to instruct the ignorant, and not to 
" punish them; to pity, and not hate them. The 
" duty of an emperor is to imitate God; and to 
" imitate him, is to have as few wants, and to do 
" as much good, as possible." Let those, there- 
fore, who insult and reproach antiquity, learn to 
know it : let them not confound wise legislators, 
with the tellers of idle stories, and the relaters of 
fables ; let them learn to distinguish between the 
laws of the wisest of magistrates, and the ridicu- 
lous customs of the people ; let them not say, 
they invented superstitious ceremonies, and were 
lavish of false oracles, and sham prodigies, and 
therefore all the magistrates of Greece and Rome, 
who tolerated them, were blind deceivers and de- 
ceived. It would be the same as saying, there 
are Bonzes in China which deceive the populace, 
and therefore the wise and good Confucius was a 
miserable imposter. In an age so enlightened as 
ours, we ought to blush at the frequent declama- 
tions of the ignorant, against those wise men, 
whom we ought to imitate and not to calumniate. 



156 Ol ZALEIH IS. tTC. 

Are not the common people, of every country, 
weak, superstitious, and foolish ? Have there not 
been fanatics in the country of the Chancellor 
de lHopital, of Charon, of Montague, of de la 
Motte le Vayer, of Descartes, Bayle, Fontenelle, 
and Montesquieu ? And are there not Methodists, 
Moravians, Millenarians, and fanatics of every de- 
scription, in the country which had the honour and 
happiness of giving birth to the Chancellor Bacon, 
and to those immortal geniuses, Newton, and 
Locke, and numerous other ereat men ? 



157 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 



OF BACCHUS. 



With the exception of those fables which are 
clearly allegorical, such as those of the Muses, of 
Venus, the Graces, Love, Zephyrus, and Flora, 
with a few others of the same species, all the rest 
are but a collection of idle stories, which have no 
other merit than that of having furnished Ovid 
and Quinaut with materials for some beautiful 
verses, and exercised the pencil of some of our 
best painters. But, there is one, which claims 
the attention of those who delight in the researches 
of antiquity, and that is, " The fable of Bacchus." 

This Bacchus, or Back, or Backos, or Dioni- 
sios, the son of God, was he, or not, a real per- 
sonage ? So many nations speak of him, as well 
as of Hercules, and they have celebrated so many 
different Herculeses and Bacchuses, that we may 
very reasonably conclude, that in point of fact, 
there have been one Bacchus, and one Hercules. 

One thing is certain, that in Egypt, Asia, and 
Greece, Bacchus, as well as Hercules, was ac- 
knowledged as a demi-god ; their feasts were cele- 



158 OF BACCHUS. 

brated, and miracles attributed to them; and 
mysteries were instituted in the name of Bacchus, 
long before the Jewish books were known. 

It is sufficiently well known, that the Jewish 
books were not communicated, or made known, to 
strangers, until the time of Ptolemy Philadelphus, 
about two hundred and thirty years before our era. 
Now, long before this, the east and west resound- 
ed with the orgies of Bacchus. The verses as- 
cribed to the ancient Orpheus, celebrate the con- 
quests and good deeds of this supposed demi-god. 
His history is so ancient, that the fathers of the 
church have entertained an idea, that Bacchus, and 
Noah, were the same : because Bacchus and Noah 
were reputed to have both cultivated the vine. 

Herodotus, in referring to ancient opinions, 
says, that Bacchus was an Egyptian, brought up 
in Arabia Felix. The Orphick verses relate, that 
he was preserved from the waters, in a little box, 
or chest ; that he was called Misem in commemo- 
ration of this event ; that he was instructed in all 
the secretsof the gods; that he had a rod which 
he changed into a serpent at his pleasure ; that he 
passed through the Red Sea dry-shod, as Hercu- 
les subsequently did, in his goblet, through the 
straits of Abila and Calpe ; and that when he went 
into India, he, and his army, enjoyed the light of 
the sun during the night ; moreover, it is said 
that he touched, with his magic rod, the waters of 
the great rivers Orontes and Hydaspes ; upon 



OF BACCHUS. J59 

which, those waters flowed back, and left him a 
free passage. It is even said that he arrested the 
course of the sun and moon. He wrote his laws 
on two tables of stone. He was anciently repre- 
sented with horns, or rays, issuing from his head. 

It is not at all to be wondered at, that the pre- 
ceding description of Bacchus should lead many 
learned men, and particularly Bochart and Huet, 
in modern times, to assert, that Bacchus is a 
copy, or representation, of Moses and of Joshua. 
Every thing combines to favour the resemblance : 
for Bacchus was called, (among the Egyptians,) 
Arsaph ; and among the names which the fathers 
have given to Moses, we find that, of Osasirph. 

Between those two histories, which seem to re- 
semble each other in so many points, it is not to 
be doubted, that that of Moses is the truth, and 
that of Bacchus, the fable. But, it appears, that 
this fable was known among the different nations, 
a long time before the history of Moses reached 
them. No Grecian author cited Moses before 
Longinus, who lived in the reign of the emperor 
Aurelian ; but all had previously celebrated Bac- 
chus. 

It seems impossible, that the Greeks could 
have taken their ideas of Bacchus, from the book 
of the Jewish law ; which, they neither under- 
stood, nor of which they had the least know- 
ledge; a book, besides, so rare, that, among the 
Jews themselves, in the reign of king Josias, but 



160 OF BACCHUS. 

one copy could be found; a book, moreover, 
almost wholly lost, during the captivity of the 
Jews in Chaldea, and other parts of Asia; but 
which was again restored, by Esdras, in the 
flourishing times of Athens ; when the mysteries 
of Bacchus had long been instituted. 

God, therefore, permitted that the spirit of 
lying should divulge the absurdities of the life of 
Bacchus, to a hundred nations ; before the Spirit 
of Truth made known the life of Moses, to any 
people, except the Jews. 

The learned Bishop of Avranches, struck with 
so astonishing a resemblance, did not hesitate to 
pronounce, that Moses was, not only Bacchus, 
but, the Osiris of the Egyptians. He even adds, 
(to unite contradictions) that Moses was also their 
Typhon, — that is to say, that he was, at one and 
the same time, their good and bad principle : the 
protector, and the enemy; the god and devil, re- 
cognized by the Egyptians. 

Moses, according to this learned man, was the 
same as Zoroaster. He was Esculapius, Amphion, 
Apollo, Faunus, Janus, Perseus, Romulus, Ver- 
tumnus, and finally, Adonis and Priapus. The 
proof that he was Adonis, is the following line in 
Virgil : — 

" Et formosus oves ad fluraina pavit Adonis." 

" And the beautiful Adonis was a keeper of sheep." 

Moses also kept sheep somewhere in Arabia. — 



OF BACCHUS. 161 

The proof of his being Priapus, is still better : it 
is, because Priapus was sometimes represented 
with an ass, and the Jews were reputed to wor- 
ship the ass. The learned Huet adds, as the 
highest confirmation, that the rod of Moses may 
very well be compared to the sceptre of Pria- 
pus : — 

" Sceptrum Priapo tribuitur, virga Mosi." 

This is what Huet calls his demonstration. It is 
not, in truth, very geometrical ; and we can rea- 
dily believe that he was ashamed of it, in his lat- 
ter years : and that he remembered his demon- 
stration, when he wrote his treatise on the weak- 
ness of the human mind, and of the uncertainty of 
its powers.- 



if 



162 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

OF GRECIAN METAMORPHOSES, — >AS COMPILED 
BY OVID. 

The opinion of the migration of souls, naturally 
leads to metamorphoses, as we have already ob- 
served. Every idea which strikes the mind, and 
amuses it, quickly finds its way through the 
world. As soon as you have persuaded me that 
my soul may enter into the body of a horse, you 
will not have much difficulty in making me be- 
lieve, that my body may be changed into that of a 
horse, also. 

The compilation of Metamorphoses by Ovid, of 
which we have already spoken, would not, in the 
least, astonish a Pythagorean, a Bramin, a Chal- 
dean, or an Egyptian. The gods were trans- 
formed to animals in ancient Egypt. Dorceto, or 
Bercetis, was metamorphosed into a fish, in Syria; 
and Semiramis into a dove, at Babylon. The 
Jews, in times very posterior to this, write, that 
Nabuchodonosor was transformed into an ox, with- 
out reckoning the wife of the unfortunate Lot, 
who became a pillar of salt. May not all the 



OF GRECIAN METAMORPHOSES, ETC. 163 

apparitions of the gods, and the genii, under the 
human form, be considered a real, though tran- 
sient, metamorphosis ? 

A god can have but little communication with 
us, unless he appears in a human form. It is 
certainly said that Jupiter assumed the figure of a 
beautiful swan, to enjoy Leda ; but instances of 
of this kind are very rare :| and, in every religion, 
the divinity always assumes the human form, when 
he comes to give orders^ It would be rather 
difficult for us to understand the voice of the gods, 
if they presented themselves to us in the shape of 
bears and crocodiles. 

In fine, the gods metamorphosed themselves 
almost every where : and, as soon as we became 
acquainted with the secrets of magic, we, also, 
metamorphosed ourselves. Several persons, wor- 
thy of credit, changed themselves into wolves. 
The word "were- wolf"* still attests, among us, the 
existence of this metamorphosis. 

That which contributes greatly to the belief of 
all these transmutations, and all, and every pro- 
digy, of the same kind and species, is, that we 
cannot circumstantially prove their impossibility. 
We can urge no argument against any one who 
should say to us, "A god came yesterday to my 
" house, in the form of a beautiful young man, and 
" my daughter, nine months hence, will give birth 

* Lovp-garou. 
M 2 



164 OF GRECIAN METAMORPHOSES, ETC. 

" to a beautiful child, which the god has conde- 
" scended to make for her. My brother, who pre- 
" sumed to doubt this fact, has been transformed 
" into a wolf, and is actually running about howl- 
*' ing in the woods." — If the daughter be really 
brought to bed, and if the man, transformed into a 
wolf, affirms that he has actually been subjected 
to that metamorphosis, how can you demonstrate 
that the thing is not true? You would have no 
other resource, than to cite before the judges, the 
young man who counterfeited the god, and by 
whom the girl was pregnant ; and to cause the 
uncle, were-wolf, to be watched, that you may 
produce evidence of his imposture : but the family 
will not subject itself to this examination ; and 
they, and all the priests of the district, will re- 
proach you with being a profane and ignorant 
creature. They will point out to you, that as a 
caterpillar becomes a butterfly, so a man, with 
equal ease, may be changed into a beast ; and, if 
you attempt to dispute it, you will be impeached 
before the inquisition of the country, as an impi- 
ous wretch, who believes neither in were-wolves, 
nor in the gods, who get young maids with child. 



165 



CHAPTER XXX. 



OF IDOLATRY. 



After reading all that has been written on the 
subject of Idolatry, we can find nothing which 
gives us any correct notions of it, or precisely 
defines what it is. Locke appears to be the first, 
who taught men to define the words which they 
pronounced ; and, not to speak at random. The 
term which answers to the word Idolatry, is not 
found in any ancient language. It is an expres- 
sion of the Greeks, of the latter ages ; and was never 
brought into use, until the second century of our 
era. It signifies " The adoration, or worship of 
Images." It is a term of reproach ; — an expres- 
sion of abuse, or insult. No people have ever 
taken upon them the title of " Idolaters." No 
government has ever commanded, or ordained, 
that an image should be worshipped as the ," Su- 
preme God of all Nature." The ancient Chal- 
deans, Arabians, and Persians, had not, for a 
length of time, either images, or temples. How 
can those who worshipped the sun, the stars, and 



166 OF IDOLATRY. 

fire, as emblems of the Divinity, be called idolaters ? 
They reverenced what they saw. But assuredly, 
to worship the sun and stars, is very different from 
worshipping an image carved by an artisan ; we 
may assert it to be an erroneous form of worship, 
but it is not idolatry. 

We will suppose it possible, that the Egyptians 
really worshipped the dog Anubis, and the ox 
Apis ; that they were fools enough not to look 
upon them, as animals consecrated to the Divinity ; 
and, as emblems of the benefits which their Ish- 
eth, or Isis, conferred upon men ; ot to believe, 
even, that this dog and ox were animated by ce- 
lestial rays ; it is evident that this is not the wor- 
ship of an image. A beast is not an idol. 

It cannot, for a moment, be questioned, that 
men had adopted objects of worship, long before 
there were any sculptors ; and, it is clear, that 
men, so ancient, cannot, with any propriety, be 
called idolaters. It remains then to be known, if 
those, who eventually caused statues, or images, 
to be placed in temples, and who ordained the re- 
verence, or worship, of those statues, were called 
" worshippers of images," — and their people, also, 
" worshippers of images." We certainly cannot 
discover any thing of the kind, in any record, or 
monument of antiquity, extant. 

But then comes the question. — Although they 
did not assume the title of idolaters, were they so, 
in point of fact ? Were people commanded to be- 



OF IDOLATRY. 167 

lieve, that the brazen image, which represented 
the fantastick figure of Bel, at Babylon, was the 
master, the God, the Creator, of the world ? Was 
the figure, or image, of Jupiter, Jupiter himself? 
Is it not, (if we may be allowed to draw a compa- 
rison between our holy religion, and the customs 
of the ancients,) the same, as saying, that we wor- 
ship the image of the Father everlasting, in the 
form of an old man with a long beard : — or the 
images of a woman and a child, and a dove ? these, 
forming the emblematical ornaments of our tem- 
ples. But, we have so little adoration for them, 
that if these images happen to be of wood, and fall 
to decay, we use them for firewood, and erect 
others in their places. They are merely signifi- 
cant emblems, speaking to the eyes and the 
imagination. The Turks, and the Protestant re- 
formers, say, that the Catholics are idolaters ; but 
the Catholics loudly protest against, and deny, the 
accusation. 

It is impossible, in fact, for any one really to 
worship an image ; or to believe, that that image 
is the Supreme God. There was only one Jupiter, 
but, there were thousands of his statues. Now, 
this Jupiter, who was believed to launch the thun- 
der, was supposed to dwell in the clouds, or on 
Mount Olympus, or in the planet which bears his 
name. His images then, did not launch thunder, 
nor dwell in the clouds, nor in a planet, nor on 
Mount Olympus. All prayers were addressed to 



168 OF IDOLATRY. 

the immortal gods ; and, assuredly, statues were 
not considered immortal. 

It is but too true, that knaves and impostors 
have inspired the weak and superstitious, with a 
belief, that statues and images had spoken. And 
numbers of the lower order of people, among us, 
have possessed, and do possess, the same credulity. 
But, among no people whatever, were these ab- 
surdities considered as the religion of the state. 
Some imbecile old woman, perhaps, may not have 
been able to distinguish between the god and the 
statue ; but that, will not warrant us, in affirming, 
that the government entertains similar opinions to 
this old woman. The magistrates wished the 
people to reverence the representations of the 
gods, whom they worshipped ; that their atten- 
tion might be fixed by these outward and visible 
signs. This is precisely what is done, in one half 
of Europe. There are figures, representative of 
God the Father, as an old man ; and, it is well 
known that God the Father is not an old man. 
There are many images of different saints, whom 
we are taught to venerate, and, we are well aware, 
that those saints are not God the Father. 

In the same way, if we may venture to say as 
much, the ancients did not mistake, nor had they 
so little discernment, as not to be enabled to dis- 
tinguish between the demi-gods, the gods, and 
the God of gods. If these ancients were idola- 
ters, the people of one half of Christendom are 



OF IDpLATRY. 169 

idolaters also ; and if the latter are not so, neither 
were the nations of antiquity. 

Jn a word, there is not, in all antiquity, a single 
instance of a poet, a philosopher, or a statesman, 
representing any people as worshippers of stone, 
marble, brass, or wood. The proofs to the con- 
trary are innumerable. Idolatrous nations, there- 
fore, are something like sorcerers ; people speak 
of them, but there never were any such in 
existence. 

Some commentator has concluded that the 
statue of Priapus was actually worshipped, be- 
cause Horace, in making this bug-bear speak, 
causes it to say — " I was formerly the trunk of a 
"tree; — the artisan, undetermined whether he 
" should make a god, or a joint-stool, of me, finally 
" resolved to make me a god," &c. This commen- 
tator cites the prophet Baruch, to prove, that in 
the time of Horace, the statue of Priapus was 
worshipped as a real divinity. He does not per- 
ceive, that Horace is making a jest, both of the 
pretended god and his statue. It may be possi- 
ble that, one of the servant-maids, in seeing this 
enormous figure, might conceive there was some- 
thing divine in it; but it will not, assuredly, be 
pretended, that all those wooden figures of Priapus, 
with which the gardens were filled for the purpose 
of driving away the birds, were regarded as the 
Creators of the world ! 

It is said that Moses, notwithstanding the Di- 



170 OF IDOLATRY. 

vine decree, to make no representation of either 
man or beast, set up a serpent of brass ; which, by 
the bye, was an imitation of the serpent of silver, 
carried by the priests of Egypt in their proces- 
sions ; but, although this serpent was made to 
heal the bites of real serpents, yet, the people did 
not worship it. Solomon placed two Cherubims 
in the temple; but, these Cherubims were not 
looked upon as gods. If then, both in the Jewish 
temples, and ours, people have had respect for 
statues, without being idolaters, why cast so many 
reproaches on other nations ? Either we ought to 
absolve them, or they, to accuse us. 



171 



CHAPTER XXXI. 



OF ORACLES. 



It is evident that we can know nothing of the 
future ; because, we cannot know that, which does 
not exist ; but,, it is equally clear, that one may 
conjecture the issue, or probability, of an event. 

For instance, you behold a numerous and well 
disciplined army advance, in an advantageous 
position, and conducted by a skilful chief, against 
a rash and imprudent commander, accompanied 
with but few troops, badly armed, badly posted, 
and one half of whom you know will betray him ; 
you foretel that this commander will be beaten. 

You have remarked that some young man and 
woman are desperately in love with each other ; 
you have observed them both coming out of the 
paternal mansion, and promenading together : you 
predict that, before long, the young woman will 
be pregnant ; and you will not be much mistaken. 
All predictions come within the verge of probabi- 
lity. There is not therefore any nation which has 
not had its predictions, and which predictions have 
been duly accomplished. The most celebrated, 



172 OF ORACLES. 

and best attested, is that which was made by the 
treacherous Flavius Josephus, to Vespasian, and 
Titus his son ; the conquerors of the Jews. He 
observes, that Titus and Vespasian are greatly be- 
loved by the Roman armies in the East ; and that, 
Nero is detested by all the empire. In order to 
gain the good graces of Vespasian, he ventures to 
predict to him, in the name of the God of the Jews, 
that he, and his son, will be emperors. They 
became so, in fact ; but it is evident that Josephus 
ran no risk by his prediction. For, if Vespasian, 
in aspiring to the empire, should perish in the at- 
tempt, he will not be in a condition to punish Jo- 
sephus ; if he becomes emperor, he rewards him ; 
and whilst he does not reign, he has hopes of doing 
so. Vespasian tells Josephus, that if he were a 
prophet, he ought to ^have foretold the taking of 
Jotaphat, which he had in vain defended against 
the Roman army. Josephus replies, that, in fact, 
he had foretold it ; which was not very surprising : 
what commander, in sustaining a siege, shut up in 
a small place, against a large and powerful army, 
could not predict that the place would be taken ? 

It was not very difficult for any one to foresee, 
that he would acquire the respect, as well as the 
money, of the multitude, by acting the prophet ; 
and that the credulity of the people would be a 
fruitful revenue to him, who knew how to deceive 
them. There were diviners and conjurors in all 
parts ; but it was not sufficient for them to foretel 



OF ORACLES. 173 

events in their own names ; they went farther, and 
prophesied in the name of the divinity : and from 
the time of the prophets of Egypt, who were called 
seers, to the time of Ulpius, prophet of the favor- 
ite of the deified Emperor Adrian, there has been 
a prodigious number of holy quacks, and religious 
impostors, who, for the purpose of deceiving men, 
have pretended to speak, and to prophesy, in the 
name of their gods. It is well known by what 
means they did, and could succeed ; sometimes by 
an ambiguous answer, which they subsequently 
explained in a manner most conducive to their ob- 
ject ; and sometimes, by bribing the servants, and 
secretly enquiring of them, an account of the con- 
duct and adventures of the devotees who came to 
consult them. Some silly bigot would be quite 
astonished, on being told by an impostor, in the 
name of God, of some of the most private actions 
of his life. 

These prophets had the reputation of knowing 
the past, the present, and the future. This is the 
eulogy which Homer bestows on the celebrated 
soothsayer Calchas. It will not be necessary to 
add any thing here, to what has been said by the 
learned Vandale, and his judicious compiler, Fon- 
tenelle, respecting oracles. They have, with great 
sagacity and discernment, unveiled whole ages of 
imposture; and the Jesuit Balthus evinced very 
little sense, or a great deal of malignity, by main- 
taining, in opposition to them, the truth of the pa- 



174 OF ORACLES. 

gan oracles, upon the principles of the Christian 
religion. It is absolutely an insult to, and an 
abuse of, the Deity, to pretend that He, the God 
of goodness and truth, had let loose devils from 
hell, to come upon earth, to do that, which he 
does not do himself, — render oracles. Now, either 
these devils spoke truth, and in such case it was 
impossible not to believe them ; and God himself, 
by advancing the cause of, and supporting all false 
religions by daily miracles, would thus throw the 
universe into the arms of his enemies : or, they 
spoke falsely ; and in that case, we must suppose 
these devils were let loose by God, for the pur- 
pose of imposing upon, and deceiving mankind. 
A more absurd, or ridiculous opinion, could not 
possibly be entertained. 

The most celebrated oracle was that of Delphos. 
At first they made choice of young innocent girls, 
as most proper to be inspired ; that is, to utter, or 
give out, faithfully, the bombast and nonsense 
which the priests dictated to them. The young 
Pythia was mounted on a tripod, placed near the 
hole of a subterraneous cavity, whence issued the 
prophetic exhalation. The divine spirit entered 
beneath the robes of the Pythia, in a way per- 
fectly human. But, it having unfortunately hap- 
pened, that some votary offered violence to, and 
carried off, one of the pretty Pythias, they, from 
that time, chose none but old women to perform 
the office ; and we believe, that on this account, 



OF ORACLES. 175 

the oracle of Delphos, lost much of its former 
fame. 

Divinations and auguries were a species of ora- 
cles ; and are, we believe, of much greater anti- 
quity ; for, many ceremonies, and much time, are 
necessary to the establishment of an oracle ; in 
which, both priests and temples, are indispensable: 
but, nothing was more easy, than to tell fortunes 
in a cross-road. This art subdivided itself in a 
thousand different ways ; predictions were made 
on the flight of birds, the liver of sheep, by the 
plaits or folds in the palm of the hand, by circles 
drawn on the ground, by water, by fire, by small 
flint-stones, by magic wands, by every thing which 
imagination could invent: and often, even by a 
pure enthusiasm, which bid defiance to all rules. 
But who was the inventor of this celebrated art ? 
It was the first knave who encountered an imbecile 
adapted to his purpose. 

The greater part of these predictions were some- 
thing like those of the Liege Almanack. " A great 
" man will die ; there will be shipwrecks." If the 
judge, or magistrate, of a village happens to die 
in the course of the year, this, (for that village,) is 
the great man whose death was foretold. If a 
bark of fishermen are upset and drowned, these 
are the great shipwrecks, so gravely predicted. 
The author of the Liege Almanack is declared to 
be a sorcerer, whether his predictions are accom- 
plished or not ; for if some event happens to favour 



176 OF ORACLES. 

them, his magic powers are demonstrated ; but, 
should things prove contrary, then the prediction 
is applied to some other event, and the allegory 
clears him. 

The Liege Almanack has predicted that a people 
form the north will come and destroy every thing; 
they do not, however, make their appearance ; but 
a north wind destroys the vines of the country, 
and this is what was foretold by Matthew Lans- 
berg. Will any one pretend to dispute his great 
powers and wisdom ? The Hawkers will imme- 
diately denounce him as a bad citizen, and the 
astrologers will call him a person of no mind, and 
a wicked and mischievous reasoner. 

The Sunnite Mahometans have made great use 
of this method, in their explanations of the Koran 
of Mahomet. The star, Aldebaran, was held in 
great veneration by the Arabians ; it signifies, 
"The eye of the Bull;" which means, that the 
eye of Mahomet would enlighten the Arabians, 
and that, like a bull, he would butt his enemies 
with his horns. 

The Acacia tree was also held in veneration by 
the Arabians ; they made great hedges of it, 
which protected the harvests from the scorching 
heat of the sun ; thence, Mahomet is the Acacia, 
which extends his protecting shadow over the 
earth. Sensible Turks laugh at these subtle foole- 
ries ; young women do not bestow their reflection 
upon them ; and old women, believe them ; and 



OF ORACLES. 177 

he who should publicly declare to a Dervise, that 
he taught nonsense, would run the risk of being 
impaled alive. Some learned men have met with 
the history of their times in the Iliad, and in the 
Odyssey ; but these learned men have not been 
quite so fortunate as the commentators of the 
Alcoran. 

The most brilliant and conspicuous function of 
the oracles was that of ensuring victory in time 
of war. Each army, and each nation, had its 
oracles ; which, respectively, promised triumph 
and victory. One of the two parties must, infal- 
libly, have received a true oracle. The vanquished 
party, who had been deceived, attributed the de- 
feat to some fault committed against the gods, 
after the oracle had been rendered ; and he hopes, 
that another time, the oracle will be duly accom- 
plished. In this manner, have almost all the 
world cherished illusions and fallacies. Scarcely 
one, among the many nations and people of the 
earth, but what has preserved in its archives, or 
possessed, by oral tradition, some prediction, 
which ensured to it the conquest of the world ; 
that is to say, of the neighbouring nations ; no 
conqueror has appeared, who had not been dis- 
tinctly foretold, immediately after his conquests. 
The Jews even, though shut up, as it were, in a 
little corner of the earth, almost unknown, be- 
tween Anti-libanus, Arabia Deserta, and Arabia 

N 



r 



178 OF ORACLES. 

Petrsea, had similar hopes and expectations to 
other nations. They cherished the idea of be- 
coming the masters and lords of the universe ; 
founded on a thousand oracles, which we interpret 
in a mystical sense, but which they understood 
literally. 



179 



CHAPTER XXXII . 

OF THE GREEK SIBYLS, AND OF THEIR IN- 
FLUENCE UPON OTHER NATIONS. 

When almost all the earth was filled with oracles, 
there arose some old maidens, who, without being 
attached to any party, or temple, bethought them- 
selves of prophesying on their own account. They 
were called Sibyls, a Greek word, of the Laconian 
dialect, which signifies — ■'* The counsel of God." 
Antiquity reckons ten principal ones, in different' 
countries. The story is well known, of the old 
woman who came to Rome, for the purpose of 
bringing to the elder Tarquin, the nine books of 
the ancient Sibyl of Cunraea. As Tarquin hag- 
gled too much, the old woman threw the first six 
books in the fire ; and then, demanded as much 
for the remaining three books, as she had pre- 
viously asked for the whole nine. Tarquin com- 
plied with the demand. They were, it is said, 
preserved at Rome, until the reign of Sylla, and 
were burnt in a conflagration of the Capitol. But 
how could they dispense with these prophecies of 
the Sibyls ? Three senators were sent to Erythea. 
a city of Greece, where was very carefully pre- 

n 2 



180 OF THE GREEK SIBYLS, 

served, a thousand verses, in bad Greek, which 
were reputed to be of the manufacture of the 
Erythaean Sibyl. Every one was desirous of hav- 
ing copies of them. The Erythaean Sibyl had 
foretold every thing. Her prophecies were like 
those of Nostradamus, among us. They did not 
fail, on every extraordinary occasion, to invent 
some Greek verse; which was, of course, attributed 
to the Sibyl. 

Augustus, who feared (and not without reason) 
that some verses in this rhapsody would be dis- 
covered, authorising conspiracies, &c. forbade, on 
pain of death, any Roman to have in his posses- 
sion, Sibylline verses of any description. A pro- 
hibition, worthy of a suspicious tyrant, who pre- 
served, by address and cunning, the power which 
he had usurped by crime. 

The Sibylline verses, however, were more valued 
than ever ; now, that they were prohibited from 
reading them. They must, of course, contain the 
truth ; since, they were so strictly concealed from 
the people. 

Virgil, in his eclogue on the birth of Pollio, 
Marcellus, or Drusus, did not fail to cite the 
authority of the Sibyl of Cumaea, who had plainly 
foretold that this child, who died shortly after, 
should restore the golden age. It was then as- 
serted, that the Erythaean Sibyl had prophesied, 
as well as the Cumaean. The newly born infant, 
belonging either to Augustus, or his favourite, was 



AND OF THEIR INFLUENCE. 181 

sure to have been foretold by the Sibyl. Besides, 
predictions are never made but for the great : the 
common people are not worth the trouble of them. 
These oracles of the Sibyls therefore, were al- 
ways in very great repute. The first Christians, 
too far led away by a false zeal, thought they 
might as well forge similar oracles ; and be thus 
enabled to fight the Gentiles with their own wea- 
pons. Hermas and St. Justin are reputed to be 
the first, who, unhappily, practised this imposture. 
St. Justin cites the oracles of the Sibyl of Cumaea, 
rendered by a Christian who had assumed the 
name of Tstapus ; and pretended, that this Sibyl 
had lived from the time of the deluge. St. Clement 
of Alexandria, in his Stromates, assures us that 
the apostle St. Paul recommends in his Epistles, 
" the perusal of the Sibylline books, which had 
" manifestly foretold the birth of the Son of God." 
This epistle of St. Paul must, however, be lost ; 
for we do not find these words, nor any thing like 
them, in any of St. Paul's Epistles now extant. 
In these days, the Christians appear to have pos- 
sessed an infinite number of books, which are lost 
to us. Such as the prophecies of Jallabash, Seth, 
Enoch, and of Cham, Kam, or Ham ; the Penitence 
of Adam ; the History of Zechariah, the father of 
St. John ; the Evangelists, or Gospels of the Egyp- 
tians, St. Peter, Andrew, James, and of Eve ; the 
Apocalypse of Adam ; the letters of Jesus Christ, 
and a hundred other writings, of which, but few 



182 OF TtlE GREEK SIBYLS, 

fragments remain ; buried in the rubbish of publi- 
cations, which no person considers worthy of a 
perusal. 

The Christian Church was, at this time, divided 
into societies, the one Judaizing, and the other the 
reverse, or Non- Judaizing. — These were subdivi- 
ded into many others. Any one possessed of suf- 
ficient talent, wrote in behalf of his own party. 
There were more than fifty gospels, up to the time 
of the Council of Nice ; of which, there remain, 
at present, those only of the Virgin, of the Infancy, 
and of Nicodemus. They were very particular in 
forging verses, which they attributed to the ancient 
Sibyls. And indeed, such was the respect which 
the people had for these Sibylline oracles, that it 
was considered necessary to have this strange sup- 
port, to prop up, and strengthen, the then infant 
state of Christianity. Not only were Greek Sibyl- 
line verses manufactured, which announced Jesus 
Christ, but these verses were written in acrosticks, 
so that the letters of these words, " Jesous Chreis- 
tos ios Soter " followed in regular succession at the 
commencement of each line. — It is in one of these 
poesies that we find this prediction : — 

" With five loaves and two fishes, 
" He will feed five-thousand men in the desert, 
•' And in gathering up the fragments that remain, 
" He will fill twelve baskets. 

This even was not enough; it was considered 
possible to wrest, in favour of Christianity, the 



AND OF THEIR INFLUENCE. 183 

sense or meaning of the verses of the fourth eclogue 
of Virgil : — 

" Ultima Cumsei venit jam carminis setas ; 
" Jam nova progenies coelo demittitur alto." 

" The times of the Sibyls are at last arrived, 

" A new progeny descends from above the skies." 

This opinion was so current in the first ages of 
the church, that the emperor Constantine strongly- 
maintained, and supported it. When an emperor 
speaks, he must, of course, be in the right. Virgil, 
for a long time, had the credit of being a prophet. 
In fine, people were so convinced of the truth of 
these Sybilline oracles, that we have, in one of 
our hymns, which is not very ancient, these two 
very remarkable lines : 

" Sol vet sseclum in favilla 
"Teste David cum Sibylla." 

" The world to ashes he will reduce, 

" In proof — David and the Sibyl we adduce." 

Among the predictions ascribed to the Sibyls, that 
was particularly valued, which related to the reign 
of a thousand years ; and which the fathers of the 
church adopted, even to the time of Theodosius 
the Second. 

This reign of Jesus Christ for a thousand years 
upon earth, was originally founded on the pro- 
phecy of St. Luke, (chapter xxi.) a prophecy but 
very indifferently understood: — "That Jesus 
" Christ would come in the clouds, with power 



184 OF THE GREEK SIBYLS, 

" and great glory, before the (then) present gene- 
" ration had passed away." — The generation 
passed away ; —but St. Paul had also said in his 
first epistle to the Thessalonians, chapter iv. — 
" We declare unto you by the word of the Lord, 
" that we which are alive, and remain unto the 
" coming of the Lord, shall not prevent them 
" which are asleep. 

" For the Lord himself shall descend from 
" heaven with a shout, with the voice of the arch- 
" angel, and with the trump of God; and the dead 
" in Christ shall rise first. 

" Then we which are alive and remain, shall be 
" caught up together with them in the clouds, to 
" meet the Lord in the air : and so shall we ever 
" be with the Lord." 

It is very strange that St. Paul should say that 
the Lord himself had spoken to him ; for Paul, 
far from having been one of the disciples of Christ, 
was, for' a long time, one of his greatest persecu- 
tors. However that may be, it is' also said in the 
twentieth chapter of Revelations that the just 
"shall reign upon earthja thousand years with 
'* Jesus Christ." — People were, therefore, in con- 
stant expectation that Jesus Christ would descend 
from heaven, to establish his reign, and to rebuild 
Jerusalem ; in which, the Christians were to live, 
in joy and happiness, with the Patriarchs. This 
new Jerusalem was thus announced in the Reve- 
lations of St. John : — 



AND OF THEIR INFLUENCE. 185 

" I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, 
" coming down from God out of heaven, prepared 

a asa bride adorned for her husband It 

" had a wall great and high, and twelve gates, and 

'" at the gates twelve angels And the walls 

" of the city had twelve foundations, and in them 
" the names of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb. 
" . . . . He that talked with me had a golden 
" reed to measure the city, and the gates thereof, 
" and the wall thereof. .... The city lieth four- 
" square, and the length is as large as the breadth; 
" and he measured the city with the reed twelve 
" thousand furlongs. The length, and the breadth, 

" and the height of it are equal And he 

" measured the wall thereof, an hundred and forty 

"and four cubits The wall of it was of 

" jasper, and the city was pure gold," &c. &c. 
They might have contented themselves with this 
prediction ; but nevertheless, they preferred hav- 
ing it confirmed by the Sibyls ; to whom they as- 
cribe nearly the same words. This opinion was 
so firmly engraved on the minds of all, that St. 
Justin, in his dialogue against Tryphon, says — 
" That he is perfectly convinced of its truth, and 
" that Jesus Christ will appear in this new Jeru- 
" salem, to eat and to drink with his disciples." — 
St. Irenaeus, also, was so decidedly of this opinion, 
that he ascribes to St. John the Evangelist these 
words. — " In the*new Jerusalem, the root of every 
" vine shall produce ten thousand branches, every 



186 OF THE GREEK SIBYLS, ETC. 

" branch ten thousand shoots, every shoot ten 
" thousand bunches, every bunch ten thousand 
" grapes, and every grape twenty-five measures of 
'* wine. And when one of the holy vintagers 
" shall pluck a grape, the grape next to it shall 
" say, take me, I am better than he," &c. 

It was not enough that the Sibyl had foretold 
all these wonders, but their accomplishment must 
needs be witnessed also. According to Tertullian, 
the new Jerusalem was seen to descend from 
heaven, for forty successive nights. 

Tertullian thus expresses himself: — "We con- 
" fess that the kingdom is promised to us for a 
" thousand years upon earth, after the resurrec- 
" tion in the city of Jerusalem brought down from 
" heaven here below." 

It is thus, that, in all ages, the love of the mar- 
vellous, and the desire of hearing and relating 
wonderful and uncommon things, has perverted 
common sense, and banished reason. It is thus 
that fraud has been resorted to, when power and 
authority were wanting. The Christian religion, 
notwithstanding the mass of fraud and error mixed 
up with it, was in other respects, founded on so 
rational and so solid a basis, that it could not be 
shaken. The pure gold was disengaged from all 
this alloy, and the church arrived, by degrees to 
its present state of perfection. 



187 



CHAPTER XXXIII 



OF MIRACLES. 



Let us always bear in mind, and particularly di- 
rect our attention to, the nature and constitution 
of man. He is delighted only with the wonderful 
and the extraordinary ; and, so true is this, that as 
soon as the beautiful and the sublime becomes 
common, it ceases to be beautiful and sublime. 
People will have the marvellous, in all its varieties ; 
and, they push this extraordinary feeling, even to 
impossibilities. Ancient history resembles that 
of the great cabbage, much larger than a house ; 
and of the pot, made to cook the cabbage in, much 
larger than a church. What definition shall we 
apply to the word " Miracle," which, originally, 
meant something admirable, or worthy of admira- 
tion ? We have already said, it is that which nature 
cannot work, or perform. Something contrary to 
the order of nature, and all its laws. Thus, the 
Englishman who notified)b^the inhabitants of Lon- 
don, that he would put the whole of his body into 
a quart bottle, announced a miracle. And, in for- 
mer times, legendaries would not have been want- 

* n6 



188 OF MIRACLES. 

ing, to affirm the accomplishment of this prodigy, 
if it would have added to the revenue of the 
convent. 

We believe, without doubt or hesitation, all 
those true miracles worked, in the manner stated, 
in our holy religion ; and among the Jews, whose 
religion laid the foundation of ours. We are 
only speaking here, of other nations ; and we 
presume to argue, only, according to the rules of 
good sense, always submitting ourselves to the 
light of revelation 

Whoever is not enlightened by faith, can only 
look upon a miracle, as a contravention of the eter- 
nal laws of nature. To him, it will appear neither 
possible nor probable, that God should derange, 
and throw into disorder, his own proper work. He 
knows that every thing in nature is united by 
chains, which nothing can break or destroy. 
He knows, that God, being immutable, his laws 
must be so, also ; and that not a single wheel of- the 
great machine can be stopped, without the whole 
of nature being deranged. 

If Jupiter, in sleeping with Alcmena, makes a 
night of twenty-four hours, instead of twelve, it 
becomes a necessary consequence that the earth 
stops in its course, and remains stationary for 
twelve whole hours. But, as the same pheno- 
mena of the heavens re-appear, on the following 
night, it must have also happened, that the moon, 
and all the planets, were arrested in their course, 



OF MIRACLES. 189 

also. Here we have a great revolution in all the 
celestial orbs, in behalf of a woman of Bceotia ! 

At the expiration of a certain time, a dead man, 
they say, is raised up. Very well ! it follows, of 
course, that all the imperceptible parts of his body, 
exhaled in the air, and which the winds had car- 
ried far away, must return, each, to its proper 
place ; and also, that the worms, birds, and other 
animals, which had fed on the substance of the 
dead man's body, must, each, restore the parts 
they have respectively taken. The worms which 
had fattened on the entrails of the dead man, have, 
(we will suppose,) been eaten by swallows, — the 
swallows by magpies, — the magpies by hawks, — 
and the hawks by vultures. Each of these must 
restore, precisely, what he has taken, belonging to 
the dead man ; without which it would be no longer 
the same person. And even all this would amount 
to nothing, if the soul did not return to its usual 
abode ! 

If the everlasting Being who has foreseen every 
thing, who has arranged every thing, and who go- 
verns and regulates every thing, by laws which are 
immutable, acts contrary to himself, by overthrow- 
ing, or reversing, all his laws, it can only be for 
the general good of nature. But, it appears a con- 
tradiction in terms, to suppose a case, where the 
Creator, and Lord, and Master of all, can change 
the order of the world for the good of the world. 
For, either he has foreseen the supposed necessity, 



190 OF MIRACLES. 

or deficiency, or he has not foreseen it. If he has 
foreseen it, he has provided a remedy for it from the 
beginning ; and if he has not foreseen it, he cannot 
be God. 

They say, that to give pleasure to a particular 
nation, city, or family, the Eternal Being restored 
to life Pelops, Hippolites, Heres, and some other 
very celebrated personages ; but, it seems very 
unlikely, that the common Lord and Master of the 
universe would neglect the care of that universe, 
in favor of this Pelops, Hippolites, &c. 

The more incredible miracles are, judging of 
them by the feeble lights which illuminate our 
minds, the more they appear to have obtained cre- 
dit and belief. Every people had so many prodi- 
gies, — so many miracles, that they were quite 
common things. No nation, therefore, ever thought 
proper to throw any discredit on the miracles of 
its neighbours. The Greeks, in addressing the 
Egyptians, and the nations of Asia, say, '- The 
" Gods have sometimes spoken to you, but we 
" have a daily conference with them ; if they have 
" fought twenty times for you, they have put them- 
" selves, more than forty times, at the head of our 
"armies. If you have metamorphoses, we have a 
" hundred times more than you. If your animals 
" speak, ours have made some very fine speeches." 
There are no people, even up to the time of, and 
including the Romans, among whom, beasts have 
not exercised the gift of speech, to foretel the fu- 



OF MIRACLES. 191 

ture. Titus Livius relates that an ox in the open 
market exclaimed, " Rome, take care of thyself." 
Pliny, in his eighth book, tells us that a dog spoke, 
when Tarquin was driven from the throne. And, 
if we may believe Suetonius, a crow cried out in 
the Capitol, when they were going to assassinate 
Domitian, "Estai panta kalos, " It is very well 
done; all is well. In the same manner, one 
of the horses of Achilles, named Xanthus, pre- 
dicted his master's death before the walls of Troy. 
Before Achilles' horse, the ram of Phryxus had 
spoken, and also the cows of mount Olympus. 
Thus, we see, that instead of attempting the refu- 
tation of fables, they vied with each other in their 
manufacture. They were something like the prac- 
titioner against whom was brought a forged bond. 
He did not waste his time in arguing and pleading, 
but immediately produced a forged receipt. 

It is true, that among the Romans, we do not 
hear of many resurrections ; they confined them- 
selves, chiefly to miraculous cures. But the 
Greeks, more attached to metempsychosis, had a 
great many resurrections. They acquired this 
secret from the eastern nations ; whence all the 
sciences, and all superstition, had come. 

Of all the miraculous cures spoken of, the most 
authentick, and best attested, are those of the blind 
man, whom Vespasian restored to sight ; and of 
the paralytic, to whom he restored the use of his 
limbs. It was in Alexandria that this double mi- 



192 OF MIRACLES. 

racle was performed, before an immense concourse 
of people, consisting of Romans, Greeks, and 
Egyptians. The emperor Vespasian performed 
these miracles, seated on his throne. It was not 
he, that sought to exalt himself, by any such illu- 
sions, of which, so well established a monarch 
could not be in need. No ! it was the two dis- 
eased persons themselves, who, falling prostrate at 
his feet, conjure him to heal them of their infirmi- 
ties. He blushes at their request, and even ridi- 
cules it. He tells them, that such a cure was not 
in the power of mortals to effect. The two poor 
wretches, however, urge their request. They say 
Jhat Serapis had appeared to them, and told them, 
that they should be healed by Vespasian. At 
length, he suffers himself to be prevailed upon ; 
and, he lays his hands upon them ; but, without 
any hopes of success. The Divinity, however, 
pleased with his modesty and virtue, communi- 
cates its power to him, and in a moment, the blind 
man sees, and the lame walks. Alexandria, Egypt, 
and the whole of the empire, resound with the 
applauses of Vespasian, the favourite of Heaven. 
This miracle is preserved in the archives of the 
empire ; and alluded to, in all contemporary his- 
tories. Nevertheless, from the lapse of time, this 
miracle is believed by nobody ; because, no one 
has any interest in supporting it. 

If we may attach any credit to a writer of the 
barbarous ages, named Helgaut, King Robert, the 



OF MIRACLES. 193 

son of Hugh Capet, also restored a blind man to 
sight. This gift of miracles, in Robert, was, per- 
haps, the recompence of his humanity, in consign- 
ing to the flames his wife's confessor, and the ca- 
nons of Orleans, who had refused to acknowledge 
the infallibility, and absolute power, of the Pope ; 
and were, consequently, Manicheans. Or, if it 
were not the reward of this good action, it was, 
probably, intended, as a return for the excommu- 
nication he had suffered, for sleeping with the 
queen, his wife. 

Philosophers have worked miracles, as well as 
emperors and kings. We may cite those of Apol- 
lonius Thyanseus, a Pythagorean philosopher, tem- 
perate, chaste, and just ; and, whom history has 
not reproached with one equivocal action, nor 
any of those weaknesses, of which, Socrates him- 
self was accused. He travelled among the Magi 
and the Brachmins, and was, every where, the 
more honoured, on account of his modesty and 
virtue ; giving, always, wise and prudent coun- 
sels ; and rarely disputing with any one. The 
prayer which he was accustomed to offer up to the 
gods is admirable. " Oh, ye immortal Gods, 
" grant us whatever you shall judge fit and proper 
" to bestow, and of which we may not be undeserv- 
" ing." He was, by no means, an enthusiast him- 
self ; but, his disciples were so. They attributed 
many miracles to him, which were compiled by 
Philostratus. The Thyanaeans have ranked him 



194 OF MIRACLES. 

among the demi-gods ; and, the Roman emperors 
approved of his apotheosis. But, in the course 
of time, the apotheosis of Apollonius had the same 
fate, as that which was decreed to the Roman 
emperors ; and, the chapel of Apollonius became 
as much deserted, as that, which the Athenians 
erected in honor of Socrates. 

The kings of England, from the time of Ed- 
ward the Confessor, to King William the Third, 
daily performed a great miracle ; — that, of curing 
the king's-evil, which the physicians were unable 
to cure. But, William the Third would not work 
any miracles ; and his successors have also ab- 
stained from doing so. If England should ever 
experience any great revolution, which would 
again involve her in ignorance and darkness, she 
would then have her daily miracles as before. 



195 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 



OF TEMPLES. 



The recognition of a Deity must, for some con- 
siderable time, have preceded the erection of tem- 
ples, in honor of him. The Arabians, the Chal- 
deans, and the Persians, who reverenced the stars, 
could have had, at first, but few consecrated edi- 
fices : they had only to look at the skies : — that 
was their temple. The temple of Bel, at Babylon, 
is reputed the most ancient of all ; but the tem- 
ples of Brama, in India, possess, we imagine, 
greater antiquity : at least, so the Bramins assert. 
In the annals of China, it is said, that the first 
emperors sacrificed in a temple . That of Hercules, 
at Tyre, does not seem to rank among the most 
ancient. Hercules was never considered, by any 
people, more than a secondary divinity ; neverthe- 
less, the temple of Tyre existed a very long time 
before that of Judasa. Hiram had a very magnifi- 
cent temple, when Solomon, assisted by Hiram, 
built his. Herodotus, who travelled into Tyre, 
says, that in his time, the archives of Tyre assigned 
to this temple, an antiquity of only two thousand 

o 2 



196 OF TEMPLES. 

three hundred years. Egypt was full of temples, 
for a long time previous. Herodotus also says, that 
he was informed, that the temple of Vulcan, at 
Memphis, had been built by Menes, about the 
time which corresponds to the year 3000 before 
our era; and, it cannot be supposed, that the 
Egyptians had erected a temple to Vulcan, before 
they had built one in honour of Isis, their principal 
divinity. 

We cannot reconcile, what Herodotus says in 
his second book, with the common feelings or or- 
dinary habits of men. He pretends that, with the 
exception of the Greeks and the Egyptians, all 
other people had adopted the singular custom of 
lying with women in the midst of their temples. 
We suspect the Greek text has been corrupted : 
the most rude and barbarous of men abstain from 
an intercourse of this nature, in the presence of 
others. No man ever thinks of caressing his wife, 
or his mistress, before persons, for whom he has 
the least respect, or consideration. 

It is scarcely possible, that among so many na- 
tions, who were so very scrupulous, and severe, 
in all religious matters, their temples should have 
been converted into places of prostitution. We 
imagine that the substance of what Herodotus 
means to say, is, that the priests dwelt in the en- 
closure surrounding the temple, and slept there 
with their wives, as the Jewish and other priests 
were accustomed to do,: but, that the Egyptian 



OF TEMPLES. 197 

priests, who did not reside in an enclosure of this 
sort, or perhaps had none connected with their 
temples, abstained from all intercourse with their 
wives, when they kept guard, or watched, in the 
porches with which the temple was surrounded. 

Petty nations were, for a long time, without any 
temples. They carried their gods about in chests 
or tabernacles. We have already observed, that 
when the Jews dwelt in the deserts, or wilderness, 
to the east of the Lake Asphaltide, they carried 
about with them the tabernacle of the god Rem- 
pham, of the god Moloch, of the god Kium, &c. 
as we are told by Jeremiah, Amos, and St. Ste- 
phen. 

The other petty nations of the wilderness had 
a similar custom. This custom is, probably, the 
most ancient of any ; as it is much more easy to 
have a chest, or tabernacle, than to erect a stately 
edifice. These portable gods, in all probability, 
were the origin of the different religious processions 
in use among so many people. For, it does not 
seem very likely, that they would remove a god 
from its place in a temple, to parade it up and 
down the city ; such an outrage would have been 
considered a sacrilege, if the ancient custom of 
carrying their gods on a cart, or litter, had not 
been for a long time established. 

The greater number of temples were, at first, 
citadels, or fortresses ; within which, were safely 
deposited all sacred and holy things. Thus, the 



198 OF TEMPLES. 

Palladium was, in the fortress of Troy ; and the 
bucklers which came down from heaven, were 
kept in the Capitol. We perceive, that the temple 
of the Jews was fortified ; and capable of sustain- 
ing an assault. It is said, in the third book of 
Kings, that the building was sixty cubits long, 
and twenty broad. There are but few public edi- 
fices on so small a scale. This house, however, 
being built of stone, and on a mountain, might at 
least be defended from a surprise. The windows 
being much more narrow without, than within, 
gave them the appearance of so many loop-holes. 
It is said that the priests lodged in sheds of wood, 
built along, and strengthened by, the wall. 

It is difficult to comprehend the dimensions of 
this architecture. By the same book of Kings 
we are told, that upon the walls of this temple 
there were three stories, built of wood : that the 
first was five cubits wide ; the second, six ; and 
the third, seven. These proportions are not ours ; 
and, we imagine, these wooden stories would 
have somewhat surprised Michael Angelo, and 
Bradamantus. Be that as it may, we must con- 
sider that this temple was built on the declivity 
of the mountain Moriah, and, consequently, could 
not be of very great depth. It was necessary to 
go up several steps to arrive at the little esplanade, 
or glacis, where the sanctuary was built, which 
we are told, was twenty eubits long. Now, a 
temple, into, and out of which, you must ascend 



OF TEMPLES. 199 

and descend, must be a rude and barbarous kind 
of edifice. It might be praise- worthy, for its ho- 
liness and sanctity ; but certainly not for its 
architecture. It was not necessary to the due ful- 
filment of the designs of the Deity, that the city 
of Jerusalem should be the most magnificent of 
cities; nor his people, the most powerful of peo- 
ple ; neither did it, to him, appear necessary that 
his temple should excel that of other nations. 
Those are the most beautiful temples, in which 
the purest homage and worship are offered up. . 

The greater number of commentators have, each 
of them, given us a sketch, or design, of this 
building ; each according to his own ideas. We 
can readily believe, that neither of them ever built 
a house. However, when it is considered, that 
the walls supporting those wooden stories were of 
stone, it may be possible that in this petty place 
of refuge, they might have defended themselves for 
a few days. 

This species of fortification, by a people desti- 
tute of the arts and sciences, did not hold out long 
against Nabuzaradam, one of the captains of the 
king of Babylon, whom we call Nabuchodonosor. 

The second temple, built by Nehemiah, was of 
(smaller) dimensions, and less splendid. In the 
book of Esdras, we are told, that the walls of this 
new temple had three rows only, of rough stone ; 
and that the rest was entirely of wood. It must 
have had more the appearance of a barn, than a 



200 OF TEMPLES. 

temple. But, that which was subsequently built 
by Herod, was a real fortress. He was obliged, 
(according to Josephus,) to demolish, entirely, the 
temple of Nehemiah, which he calls the temple of 
Haggai. Herod had the ruins collected together, at 
the bottom of the Mount Moriah, for the purpose of 
erecting a platform, supported by a very thick wall, 
upon which the temple was built. Near this edi- 
fice was the tower Antonia, which he also for- 
tified ; so that this temple was, in reality, a cita- 
del. In fact, the Jews ventured to defend them- 
selves in it, against the army of Titus ; until, one 
of the Roman soldiers having thrown a burning log 
into the interior of the fort, or building, every thing 
took fire in a moment. This is some proof, that 
the buildings surrounding the temple were only of 
wood, in the time of Herod, as well as under Ne- 
hemiah and Solomon. These fir buildings con- 
tradict, in a trifling degree, that extraordinary 
magnificence, of which the exaggerator, Josephus, 
speaks. He tells us, that Titus, having entered 
into the sanctuary, admired it ; and confessed, that 
its splendour surpassed its fame. There is, how- 
ever, but little probability, that a Roman emperor, 
in the midst of carnage and slaughter, walking over 
heaps of slain, would stop to amuse himself, by 
admiring a building of twenty cubits long ; or, 
that a man who had seen the Capitol, would be 
surprised, or astonished, at the beauty of a Jew- 
ish temple. This temple was very holy, without 



OF TEMPLES. 201 

doubt ; but a sanctuary of twenty cubits long was 
not an erection of Vitruvius. The temples of Ephe- 
sus, Alexandria, Athens, Olympia, and Rome* 
were, indeed, beautiful ; but these, we imagine, 
were erected on a somewhat different scale, and 
different principles of architecture, than the tem- 
ple of the Jews. 

Josephus, in his declamations against Apion, 
says that; ! the Jews -required but one temple, " be- 
cause there is but one God." This reasoning does 
not appear very conclusive ; for, if the Jews had 
possessed a country of seven or eight hundred 
miles in extent, like many other people, they must 
have been occupied during the whole of their lives 
in travelling backwards and forwards, in order to 
sacrifice in the temple once a year. As there is 
but one God, it follows, of course, that all the 
temples in the world should be erected only to 
him ; but it is not, we imagine, thence to be in- 
ferred, that the world is to have but one temple. 
Unfortunately for superstition, her logic is built 
on such bad grounds, and has, withal, so weak 
a foundation, that she is soon laid open to the 
powers of reason and reflection. 

Besides, with what correctness, or truth, could 
Josephus say, that one temple only, was requisite 
for the Jews, when they had possessed, from the 
time of Ptolemy Philometer, the well known tem- 
ple of the Onion, at Bubastis in Egypt. 



% 

202 



CHAPTER XXXV. 



OF MAGICK. 



What is magick? The secret of doing that 
which nature cannot do ; the thing impossible ; 
and therefore magick is a thing that has at all times 
been believed in. The word is derived from Mag, 
Magdim, or the Magi of Chaldea. They were the 
best acquainted with the art ; they searched out 
the cause of rain and fine weather; and, in a short 
time, they were believed to have the power of 
bringing rain and fine weather. They were astro- 
nomers ; the most ignorant and impudent set up 
the business of astrologers. An event happened 
at the conjunction of two planets ; therefore these 
two planets were the cause of that event : and the 
astrologers were declared masters or rulers of the 
planets. Persons with minds deeply affected, had 
seen, in a dream, their friends dying, or dead ; 
hence, the magicians made the dead to appear. 

Having ascertained the course of the moon, it 
was quite easy for them to bring her down to the 
earth. They disposed even of the lives of men ; 
whether by making figures of wax, or by pro- 



OF MAGICK. 203 

nouncing the name of God, or that of the devil, 
does not much signify. Clement of Alexandria, 
in his Stromates, Book V., says, that according to 
an ancient author, Moses pronounced the name of 
Iaho or Jehovah, in the ears of Pharaoh Necho, 
with such tremendous effect, that it caused the 
instant death of that king. 

In fine, from the days of Jannes and Membres, 
the commissioned, or official sorcerers of Pharaoh, 
to the time of Marshal De l'Ancre, who^vas burnt 
at Paris, for having killed a white cock during the 
time of full moon, no period has been free from 
witchcraft. 

The Pythoness, or witch of Endor, who con- 
jured up the ghost of the prophet Samuel, is well 
known. It is certainly not a little strange that the 
word Python, which is of Greek origin, should be 
known to the Jews in the time of Saul. Several 
learned men have, however, inferred from it, that 
this history was not written until after the time of 
Alexander, when the Jews began to have some 
commercial intercourse with the Greeks ; but this 
is not the subject of our present enquiry. 

To resume our subject — magick. The Jews 
practised it, as soon as they became known, and 
were spread abroad in the world. The Sabbath of 
Sorcerers is an evident proof of it ; and the goat 
with which the sorceresses, or witches, were sup- 
posed to have commerce, originates in that ancient 
commerce of the Jews with goats in the wilderness, 



204 OF MAGICK. 

and with which abomination they are reproached 
in the book of Leviticus. 

Among us, but few criminal processes against 
sorcerers have been instituted, in which some Jew 
was not implicated. 

The Romans, as enlightened as they were in 
the time of Augustus, were, notwithstanding, as 
much infatuated with witchcraft, as other na- 
tions. Read the eclogue of Virgil, entitled Phar- 
macentria^: 

" Carmina vel coelo possunt deducere lunam." 

The voice of the enchanter makes the moon come down. 

" His ego ssepe lupum fieri et se condere silvis, 
*'* Moerim ssepe animas imis exire sepulcris." 

Moeris become a wolf, concealed himself in the woods. 
From the bottom of their tombs, I have seen the spirits rise. 

Can any one be surprised, that at Naples, even 
in the present day, Virgil is considered as having 
been a sorcerer? Abundant reasons may be found 
in this eclogue, for the apellation. 

Horace reproaches Sagana and Canidia with 
their horrible witcheries. Some of the first men 
in the republick were infected with these horrible 
fancies. Sextus, the son of the great Pompey, 
sacrificed a child, when labouring under one of 
these enchantments. 

Love potions were a species of magick, of a more 
sweet and pleasing nature. The Jews had the 



OF MAGICK. 205 

privilege of selling them to the Roman ladies. 
Those of that nation who had no prospect of be- 
coming rich courtiers, established themselves as 
manufacturers of prophecies, or love potions. 

All these extravagances, whether of a ridiculous 
or frightful tendency, have been perpetuated 
among us ; and it is not a century since they were 
discredited. Missionaries have been overwhelmed 
with astonishment, on finding those abominable 
practices established in the most distant parts of 
the world. Their pity has been excited for the 
people, labouring (as they describe them) under 
the inspirations of the devil. Alas ! my good 
friends, why did you not remain in your own 
country ? You would not, probably, have found 
more devils, but certainly quite as many fooleries, 
as you met with abroad. You would have found 
thousands of wretches, senseless enough to believe 
themselves sorcerers ; and judges, equally silly and 
barbarous, to condemn them to the flames. You 
would have seen a jurisprudence over magick, es- 
tablished in Europe, with the same solemnity as 
laws against robbery and murder. A jurispru- 
dence withal, founded on the grave debates of 
state councils. And what is still worse, the peo- 
ple perceiving that the church and the magistracy 
believed in witchcraft and magick, were the more 
invincibly persuaded of its existence, and in con- 
sequence, the more the sorcerers were persecuted, 
the more they increased. Whence did so fatal, 



206 OF MAGICK. 

and so general an error, arise ? From ignorance. 
And need we adduce more decisive proof, that 
those who labour to undeceive mankind, are their 
real friends and benefactors? 

It is alleged that the general consent of man- 
kind is a proof of the truth. What proof ! Nearly 
every people and nation have believed in magic, in 
astrology, in oracles, and the influences of the 
moon. It might have been said that the general 
consent of the sages or literati, was, not a proof, 
but some sort of probability. And yet what pro- 
bability ! Did not all the sages, or learned men, 
before the time of Copernicus, believe that the 
earth was motionless in the centre of the world ? 

No people can, with justice, mock or reproach its 
neighbours. If Rabelais addresses Picatrix, as 
" my reverend father in the devil," because they 
taught magick at Toledo, Salamanca, and Seville ; 
the Spaniards, in return, might justly reproach 
the French with their prodigious number of sor- 
cerers . 

France, of all countries, is, perhaps, the one 
which has most extensively combined the cruel 
with the ridiculous. There is not a single tri- 
bunal, in France, which has not consigned to the 
flames a vast number of magicians. There were, 
in ancient Rome, fools who fancied themselves 
sorcerers; but there were no barbarians to be 
found, to condemn them to the flames for their 
folly. 



207 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 



OF HUMAN VICTIMS. 



Men would have been too fortunate — too happy, 
if they had only been deceived ; but time, (which 
sometimes corrupts the usages and customs of men, 
and then again rectifies them,) having made the 
blood of animals to flow upon the altars, the barba- 
rous priests, accustomed to, and we may say, enve- 
loped in blood, passed from animals to men ; and 
Superstition, the unnatural daughter of Religion, 
strayed so far from the purity of her mother, as to 
compel men to immolate their own children, under 
the pretence that it was their duty to sacrifice 
to God, that which they held most dear. 

If we may believe the fragments of Sanchonia- 
thon, the first sacrifice of this nature was that of 
Jehud, among the Phoenicians, who was immo- 
lated by his father Hillu, about two thousand years 
before our era. It was at a time when great states 
and empires were already established; when 
Syria, Chaldea, and Egypt were very flourishing : 
and, according to Herodotus, they had already 
sacrificed a maid, by drowning her in the Nile ; in 



208 OP HUMAN VICTIMS. 

the hopes of obtaining a full and complete over- 
flowing of this river, which should be neither too 
abundant, nor the reverse. 

These abominable sacrifices, or offerings, were 
established throughout almost all the earth. Pau- 
sanias tells us that Lycaon was the first who sacri- 
ficed human victims in Greece. This most horrid 
custom had been adopted at the time of the Trojan 
war, since Homer describes Achilles as sacrificing 
twelve Trojans to the shades of Patroclus. Would 
Homer have related any thing so horrible ? Would 
he not rather have been fearful of disgusting all 
his readers by such a relation, if, in fact, such 
sacrifices had not been according to the then estab- 
lished custom ? 

Without referring to the sacrifice of Iphigenia, 
and that of Idumantus, the son of Idomeneus, — for, 
whether true or false, they show the prevailing 
opinions, — can we pretend to call in question, the 
established fact, that the Scythians of Tauridus 
immolated all foreigners ? 

If we come down to more modern times, the 
Tyrians and Carthaginians, in times of great dan- 
ger, always sacrificed a man to Saturn. They did 
the same in Italy ; and the Romans themselves, 
who condemned these horribly revolting practices, 
yet did not scruple to immolate two Gauls and 
two Greeks, as an expiation for the crime of some 
vestal. We meet with this in Plutarch's questions 
on the Romans. 



OF HUMAN VICTIMS. 209 

The Gauls and Germans had also adopted this 
horrible custom. The Druids burned human vic- 
tims in large wicker baskets : the witches of Ger- 
many cut the throats of the poor wretches who 
were devoted to death ; and judged of the future, 
by the greater or less rapidity, with which the 
blood flowed from the wound. 

We may well believe that these sacrifices were 
not common — were not an e very-day occurrence. 
If they had been frequent; if annual festivals of 
this horrible nature had been regularly celebrated ; 
if every family had been kept in constant dread, 
that the priests would come and select the most 
beautiful of their daughters, or their eldest son, 
for the pious purpose of plucking out their 
hearts, on a consecrated stone, or altar ; — an end 
would soon have been put to them by the sacrifice 
of the priests themselves. It is very probable, 
that these holy parricides were committed only 
in times of urgent necessity, or great danger; 
when men were subjugated by fear or apprehen- 
sion, and when an erroneous idea of public welfare 
compelled individual interest, and personal feeling, 
to be silent. 

Among the Bramins, every widow did not burn 
herself upon the funeral pile of her husband. The 
most imbecile and weak of their votaries have 
made, from time immemorial, and still continue to 
make, this singular and amazing sacrifice. The 
Scythians sometimes sacrificed to the manes of 

p 



210 OF HUMAN VICTIMS. 

their Kans, or Chains, those officers which were 
the most cherished and beloved by those princes. 
Herodotus informs us, that their custom was, to 
impale them around the royal corpse ; it does not, 
however, appear, from history, that this custom 
was of long duration. 

If we read the history of the Jews, written by 
an author of another nation, we should have con- 
siderable difficulty in believing it possible, that a 
fugitive people from Egypt, should come, by the 
express command of the Deity, to immolate seven 
or eight petty nations, with whom they were en- 
tirely unacquainted ; to slaughter, without mercy, 
all the old men and women, and children at the 
breast, and to reserve only the young maidens, for 
the gratification of their abominable lusts. And 
moreover, that this people should have been pun- 
ished by their God, for having spared one single 
individual, devoted to the common anathema. We 
could never have believed that such an abominable 
people ever existed upon the face of the earth ; 
but as these people, themselves, inform us of all 
these facts, in their most holy books, we are bound 
to believe them. 

We do not mean to meddle with the question as 
to whether these books were inspired. Our holy 
church, which holds the Jews in great abhorrence, 
informs us, that these Jewish books were dictated 
by Almighty God, the Creator and Father of all 
mankind ! That being the case, we can have no 



OF HUMAN VICTIMS. 211 

doubt upon the subject, nor suffer ourselves to hold 
any argument upon it. 

It is certainly true, that our feeble understanding 
does not enable us to conceive, in our most gra- 
cious God, any other kind of wisdom, justice, and 
goodness, than that which our conceptions have 
enabled us to form of him ; and which we believe 
to be perfectly consistent with his high character, 
as a God of mercy, truth, and justice. But after 
all, it may be said, that he has done according to 
his will, and it is not for us to judge of his actions. 
Let us adhere strictly to the path of simple nar- 
rative. 

The Jews have a law, by which they are ex- 
pressly forbidden to spare any thing, — or any man 
devoted to the Lord — "None devoted, which 
"shall be devoted of men, shall be redeemed, but 
"he shall surely be put to death;" says the Law 
of Leviticus, in the twenty-seventh chapter. It 
was by virtue of this law, that Jephthah sacrificed 
his own daughter; and that Samuel hewed in 
pieces the unfortunate king Agag, By the Penta- 
teuch, we learn, that in the petty country of 
Midian, which is about nine leagues square, the 
Israelites having found six hundred and seventy- 
five thousand sheep, seventy-two thousand oxen, 
sixty-one thousand asses, and thirty-two thousand 
young virgins, Moses issued a command that they 
should massacre all the men, women, and children, 
but to spare the young virgins, of whom only 

p 2 



212 OF HUMAN VICTIMS. 

thirty- two were immolated ! One very remarkable 
feature in this horrid immolation, is, that Moses 
was the son-in-law of Jethro, the high-priest of 
the Midianites, who had rendered him the most 
signal services, and heaped numerous favours upon 
him. 

By the same book we learn, that Joshua, the 
son of Nun, having passed, with his horde, over 
the little river Jordan, on dry foot, and having 
caused the walls of the city of Jericho to fall at 
the sound of the trumpet, he executed, (as he 
says,) the wrath of the Lord upon the inhabitants 
of this devoted city ; and they all perished in the 
flames, with the exception of the harlot Rahab and 
her family, who were preserved from the general 
destruction, for having piously concealed the spies 
of the holy people Israel. We are also told that 
this same Joshua devoted to death, or massacred, 
twelve thousand inhabitants of the city of Ai ; and 
that he sacrificed to the Lord thirty- one of the 
petty kings of the country, all subjected to the 
common anathema, and who were all hung. We 
have nothing, in our historical annals, that can be 
compared to these holy and pious assassinations, 
excepting perhaps the massacre of St. Bartho- 
lomew, and the Irish massacres. There is one 
thing, however, to be mentioned with regret ; and 
that is, that numerous (and among them many 
learned,) individuals, doubt the fact, of the Jews 
having found six hundred and seventy-five thou- 



OF HUMAN VICTIMS. 213 

sand sheep, and thirty-two thousand young vir- 
gins, in a little town in the wilderness, surrounded 
by rocks ; but, no one doubts the horrible massa- 
cre of St. Bartholomew's. But, we again repeat, 
that the light bestowed upon our feeble under- 
standing is, altogether, inadequate to the task 
of removing the veil, which hangs over the sin- 
gular events and occurrences of antiquity ; or, of 
forming an opinion, upon the reasons which in- 
duced the God of mercy and truth, — the Master 
of life and death, — to make choice of the Jewish 
people, to massacre and exterminate the people of 
Canaan. 



214 



CHAPTER XXXVII. 

OF THE MYSTERIES OF CERES ELEUSIS, OR THE 
ELEUSINIAN MYSTERIES. 

Amidst the chaos of popular superstitions, which 
would have converted almost all the world into 
a vast den of ferocious and savage beasts, there 
was one salutary institution, which preserved a 
part of the human race, from falling into a state of 
perfect brutishness ; it was that of mysteries and 
expiations. It was impossible, that there should 
not be some mild and gentle spirits, found among 
so many barbarous and cruel fools ; and that some 
philosopher would not arise, whose exertions 
would be directed to the restoration of his fellow 
creatures to the paths of reason and morality. 

These sages even brought in the aid of supersti- 
tion itself, in order to correct its enormous abuses ; 
in the same way that the hearts of vipers are used, 
to heal the bites of those animals. A great many 
fables were mixed up with useful truths ; and the 
truths were supported by the fables. 

We are not now acquainted with the mysteries 
of Zoroaster : and we know but little of those of 



OF THE ELEUSINIAN MYSTERIES. 215 

Isis. There cannot, however, be any doubt, that 
they announced the grand system of a future life ; 
for Celsus says to Origen, in his eighth book, 
" You boast of believing in eternal rewards and 
" punishments, and did not all the ministers of 
" mysteries announce the same to the initiated f- 

The unity of the Godhead was the grand dogma 
in all these mysteries. Apuleius has still preserved 
to us the prayer of the priestesses of Isis : — •" The 
" heavenly powers serve thee ; hell is subject unto 
" thee ; the universe revolves beneath thy hand ; 
" thy feet tread on Tartarus ; the stars answer to 
" thy voice ; the seasons return at thy command ; 
" and the elements obey thee." 

The mysterious ceremonies of Ceres were an 
imitation of those of Isis. Those who had com- 
mitted crimes were brought to confess and expiate 
them ; they fasted, purified themselves, and gave 
alms. All these ceremonies were kept secret, 
under the religious restraint of an oath ; in order 
to increase the respect and veneration of the peo- 
ple. These mysteries were celebrated in the night, 
for the purpose of inspiring a holy dread. Some 
sort of tragedy was generally exhibited to the vo- 
taries, representative of the happiness of the just, 
and the misery of the wicked. The greatest men 
of antiquity, the Platos and Ciceros of the age, 
have eulogised these mysteries ; which had not, 
then, degenerated from their original purity. 

Some very learned men have proved, that the 



216 OF THE ELEUSINIAN MYSTERIES. 

sixth book of the iEneid is but a representation 
of the ceremonies, in use, at those pious, and 
highly renowned, spectacles. There is not indeed 
any mention of the Demiourgos, the Creator of the 
World ; but in the vestibule, in the front scene, 
may be seen the children, whom their parents had 
suffered to perish ; which was intended, as a warn- 
ing to fathers and mothers. " Continuo auditse 
vagitus et ingens," &c. : and then appeared Mi- 
nos, to sit in judgment on the dead. The wicked 
were dragged away to Tartarus ; and the good and 
just conducted to the Elysian fields. These gar- 
dens contained every thing which the imagination 
could devise, as best calculated to promote the 
happiness of the generality of mankind. The 
honour of going to heaven was granted, only, to 
heroes and demi-gods. Every religion seems to 
have adopted a garden, or paradise, as the future 
abode of the just ; and when, even the Essenians, 
among the Jews, received the dogma of another 
life, they believed that the good and just would, 
after death, be conveyed to some delightful gar- 
dens, on the borders of the sea. With respect to 
the Pharisees, they adopted the doctrine of me- 
tempsychosis, and not that of the resurrection. 
If, among so many profane things, we may be 
allowed to quote a passage in sacred history, we 
shall refer to the promise of Jesus Christ made to 
the repentant robber — " Thou shalt be with me 
this day in the garden," (in paradise.) He spoke 



OF THE ELEUSINIAN MYSTERIES. 217 

conformably to the language and opinions of all 
men. 

The mysteries of Eleusinia, acquired the great- 
est celebrity. It is not a little singular, that at 
these ceremonies, it was customary to read the 
first part of the Theogony of Sanchoniathon, the 
Phoenician : which, is some proof, that Sancho- 
niathon had announced the Supreme God, the cre- 
ator and governor of the universe. It was, there- 
fore, this doctrine, which was revealed to the 
initiated, impressed with a belief of polytheism. 
Let us imagine, among us, a superstitious peo- 
ple, who should be accustomed, from their earliest 
infancy, to render to the Virgin, St. Joseph, and a 
hundred other saints, the same homage and wor- 
ship, as to God the Father. It would, very pro- 
bably, be dangerous, to undeceive them all at 
once ; it would be prudent, at first, to explain to 
some of the most moderate, the infinite distance 
there is between God and his creatures. This is 
precisely what the mystagogues did. The partici- 
pators of those mysteries assembled in the temple 
of Ceres ; and, the Hierophantes informed them, 
that, instead of worshipping Ceres, conducting 
Triptolemus, on a chariot drawn by dragons, they 
ought to worship God, who was the nourisher and 
preserver of all men, and who had permitted Ceres 
and Triptolemus to do honour to agriculture. That 
this was certainly the case, is further confirmed, 
by the fact, that the Hierophantes began by re- 



218 OF THE ELEUSINIAN MYSTERIES. 

citing the verses of the ancient Orpheus : — " Walk 
" in the ways of justice; worship and adore the sole 
" Lord and Master of the Universe ; he is one ; he, 
" alone, exists in himself; and, all other beings 
" owe their existence to him ; he acts in them, and 
" by them ; he sees all things, but has never yet 
" been seen by mortal eyes." 

We confess ourselves unable to conceive, how, 
with any degree of propriety or correctness, Pau- 
sanias can say that these verses are not equal to 
those of Homer. It must be acknowledged, that, 
at least, in point of sense, they are worth more 
than the whole of the Iliad and Odyssey com- 
bined. 

The learned Bishop Warburton, although very 
unjust in many of his bold decisions, greatly 
strengthens what we have just advanced, respect- 
ing the necessity of concealing the dogma, of the 
unity of the Deity, from a people infatuated with 
polytheism. He remarks, with Plutarch, that the 
young Alcibiades, having assisted at these myste- 
ries, did not hesitate to insult the statues of Mer- 
cury, in company with several of his friends, in a 
party of pleasure ; and that the people, in a fury, 
demanded the condemnation of Alcibiades. It 
was therefore, at that time, necessary to use the 
greatest discretion, in order to avoid shocking the 
prejudices of the multitude. Alexander, himself, 
when in Egypt, having obtained permission of the 
Hierophantes of the mysteries, to reveal to his 



OF THE ELEUSINIAN MYSTERIES. 219 

mother the secrets of the initiated, at the same time 
conjured her to burn his letter, as soon as she had 
read it, to avoid incensing the Greeks. 

Those who, led away by a false zeal, have since 
declared that these mysteries were nothing but 
scenes of infamous debauchery, should undeceive 
themselves, by simply considering the meaning of 
the word " initiated." It implies the commence- 
ment of a new life. 

Another, and most decisive, proof, that the ce- 
lebration of these mysteries were intended to in- 
spire men with the love of virtue, is, the set form 
of admonition, with which the assembly was dis- 
missed : which, among the Greeks, consisted of 
the two ancient Phoenician words, " KofF omphet," 
Watch, and be pure. We add, as final proof, 
that the emperor Nero, guilty of his mother's 
death, was refused admittance to the participation 
of those mysteries, when he travelled into Greece ; 
the crime was of too heinous a nature : and, not- 
withstanding his being an emperor, the initiated 
persisted in their refusal to admit him. Zozimus 
also tells us, that Constantine could find no pagan 
priests, who would consent to purify and absolve 
him from his parricides. 

We come then to the conclusion, that among 
those people whom we call Pagans, Gentiles, 
and Idolaters, there was a species of pure reli- 
gion ; V whilst, both the people, and the priests, 
had the most shameful customs, puerile cere- 



220 OF THE ELEUSINIAN MYSTERIES. 

mollies, and ridiculous doctrines : and that, at 
times, they would even shed human blood, to 
the honour of some imaginary deities, who were 
despised and detested by the sages. 

The purity of this religion consisted, in the 
avowal of the existence of a Supreme Being; and 
of his providence, and justice. These mysteries 
were, according to Tertullian, somewhat tar- 
nished by the ceremony of regeneration. It was 
necessary for the initiated to appear to revive ; it 
was the symbol of the new kind of life he intended 
to lead. A crown was presented to him, which 
he trod under foot ; the Hierophantes then drew 
forth the sacred knife, and the initiated, whom 
he pretended to strike, also pretended to fall dead 
at his feet: after which, he appeared to rise 
again, as it were, from the dead. A remnant of 
this ancient ceremony still exists among the Free- 
masons. 

Pausanias, in his account of Arcadia, tells us, 
that in several of the Eleusinian temples, they 
flagellated the penitents, the initiated ; an odious 
custom; which, a long time afterwards, was in- 
troduced into many of our Christian churches. It 
cannot be doubted, that in all these mysteries, 
whose institution was founded in wisdom and uti- 
lity, many odious superstitions crept in. Super- 
stition led to debauchery, and contempt followed. 
Finally, the only existing remains of all these an- 
cient mysteries, are to be seen in troops of beg- 



OF THE ELEUSIN1AN MYSTERIES. 221 

gars, under the name of Egyptians, or Gypsies, 
wandering through Europe, with castanets, dan- 
cing the dance of the priests of Isis, selling balsam 
and small wares, pretending to cure the itch, 
whilst they are covered with it themselves, telling 
fortunes, and robbing the hen-roosts. Such has 
been the end of what, at one time, was considered 
of the most sacred nature in half the known world. 



•222 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

OF THE JEWS, AT THE TIME WHEN THEY BEGAN 
TO BE KNOWN. 

We shall interfere as little as possible, with 
whatever is considered divine, in the history of the 
Jews ; or, if we are compelled to allude to it, it 
will be no further than their miracles may have an 
immediate reference to the common course o* 
events. For the continual prodigies which sig- 
nalize the march of this nation, we have all possible 
respect. We believe them, of course, with that 
reasonable faith, exacted by the church, which 
has been substituted for the synagogue, and we do 
not presume to examine them, but confine our- 
selves to the path of simple narrative. We shall 
speak of the Jews, as if we were speaking of the 
Scythians and Greeks ; by weighing probabilities, 
and discussing facts. As no one, but themselves, 
ever ventured to write their history, previous to 
the destruction of their empire by the Romans, we, 
shall have only to refer to their own proper annals. 
This nation ranks only among the most mo- 
dern ; if we consider them, in the same light, as 



OF THE JEWS. 223 

the people of other nations ; from the time that 
they began to form settlements, and to have a ca- 
pital. The Jews appear to have been of but lit- 
tle consideration to their neighbours, until the time 
of Solomon ; which was about the time of Hesiod 
and Homer, and the first Archons of Athens. 

The name of Salomon, Soloman, or Soleiman, 
is well known in the East ; but that of David is not 
so; and of Saul, still less. The Jews, before 
Saul, appear to have been merely a horde of Arabs 
of the desert ; and so insignificant, that the Phoe- 
nicians treated them something in the same way as 
the Lacedemonians treated the Iliots ; that is, as 
slaves, who were not permitted to have arms in 
their possession. They had not the privilege of 
forging iron, nor even of sharpening their plough- 
shares and axes, themselves. They were com- 
pelled to resort to their masters, for all operations 
of this kind. The Jews declare it themselves, in 
the book of Samuel ; and they add, that they had 
neither sword, nor javeline, in the battle fought at 
Bethaven, by Saul and Jonathan, against the Phi- 
listines, or Phoenicians ; on which day Saul de- 
clared, with an oath, that he would sacrifice to the 
Lord, whoever should have eaten during the 
combat. 

It is true, that previous to their gaining this bat- 
tle without arms, it is said in the preceding chapter, 
that Saul, with an army of three hundred and 
thirty thousand men, completely defeated the 



224 OF THE JEWS. 

Ammonites ; which does not seem entirely to ac- 
cord with the assertion, that they had neither jave- 
lin, nor sword, nor arms of any kind. Besides, the 
greatest kings have very rarely, if ever, had, at 
one time, an army of three hundred and thirty 
thousand effective fighting men. How then, could 
the Jews, who appear as a wandering and, oppres- 
sed people in this little country, without a fortified 
town, or arms of any kind, ( not even a sword, ) 
have been enabled to bring into the field three 
hundred and thirty thousand soldiers ? Such a 
force was adequate to the conquest of all Asia and 
Europe. We leave to more learned and enlight- 
ened authors, the task of reconciling these apparent 
contradictions, which evaporate before superior 
wisdom ; let us respect what we are bound to re- 
spect; and resume the history of the Jews, as 
deduced from their own proper writings. 



225 



CHAPTER XXXIX. 

OF THE JEWS IN EGYPT. 

By the Jewish annals we learn that that people 
dwelt on the confines of Egypt, in times unknown ; 
that their abode was in the little country of Gossen, 
Gessen, or Goshen, towards the mount Cassius, 
and the lake Sirbon. A few scattered Arabs are 
still to be met with in this country, .who come in 
the winter to feed their flocks in Lower Egypt. 
To proceed. This nation, it is said, was composed 
of a single family; which, in two hundred and 
five years, had increased to two millions of people. 
For, to furnish six hundred thousand fighting men, 
which, according to the book of Genesis, came out 
of Egypt, a population of two millions, at least, is 
necessary. This astonishing increase, so contrary 
to the order and principles of nature, is one of the 
miracles which God condescended to work in favor 
of the Jews. It is in vain that a host of learned 
men express their surprise, that the king of Egypt 
should have ordered two midwives to destroy all 
the Hebrew male children ; and that the king's 
daughter, who dwelt at Memphis, should come so 



226 OF THE JEWS IN EGYPT. 

far from that city, to bathe in an arm of the Nile, 
wherein no one ever bathed for fear of the croco- 
diles. It is in vain also, that they raise objections 
to the age of eighty years, which Moses had at- 
tained, previous to his undertaking to conduct a 
whole people out of a state of bondage and slavery. 

These learned men attempt to dispute the truth 
of, and raise many objections to, the ten plagues 
of Egypt ; they say that the magicians of the king- 
dom could not work the same miracles as the 
messenger of God ; and that, if God had given them 
this power, he would appear to act against him- 
self. They pretend that Moses, having changed 
all the waters into blood, there could have been 
no water left, for the magicians to effect the same 
metamorphosis. 

It is also asked, how Pharaoh could pursue the 
Jews with a numerous cavalry, when all the horses 
had been killed in the fifth and sixth plagues ? 
Also, why six hundred thousand fighting men, 
with God at their head, and who might have con- 
tended to advantage with the Egyptians, whose 
first-born had been struck with death, should, 
nevertheless, fly before them full of terror and dis- 
may ? It is also demanded, why God did not 
bestow the fertile country of Egypt, on his beloved 
and cherished people; instead, of making them 
wander, for forty years, in frightful deserts ? 

We have but one answer to all these numerous 
objections ; and that answer is, 1' It was the will 



OF THE JEWS IN EGYPT. 227 

of God. f — The Church believes it, and we also 
ought to believe it. It is in this point that the his- 
tory of the Jews differs from every other! Every 
people has its prodigies ; but every thing with the 
Jews is full of prodigy ; and how, we ask, could it 
be otherwise, since they were conducted by God 
himself? It is clear that no comparison can be 
drawn, between the history of God, and the history 
of men. On this account we decline referring to 
any of those supernatural facts, of which it belongs 
only to the Holy Spirit to speak. I Much less shall 
we attempt to explain them. Let us continue our 
examination of the few events, which may, with 
propriety, be subjected to criticism. 



q 2 



228 



CHAPTER XL. 

OF MOSES, CONSIDERED SIMPLY AS THE CHIEF 
OF A NATION. 

The God of nature, alone, gives strength to the 
arm, of which he deigns to make choice. Every 
thing is supernatural in the history of Moses. 
Some learned men have represented him as a skil- 
ful politician. Others, only view him as a feeble 
reed ; of which the Divine Hand deigns to make 
use, to decide the fate of empires. In fact, what 
powers, or capacity, can an old man of eighty 
years of age be supposed to possess, to warrant 
his undertaking the conduct and government of a 
whole people, over whom he can have no legiti- 
mate authority ? His arm cannot fight, nor his 
tongue articulate. He is described to us, as a 
decrepit, stammering, old man. He conducts his 
followers through frightful deserts only, for the 
space of forty years. His declared object is to 
give them a settlement, and he gives them none 
whatever. If we trace his rout, or march, through 
the deserts of Sur, Sin, Horeb, Sinai, Pharan, and 
of Cades- Barnea, and behold him retrograding, 



OF MOSES. 229 

nearly to the very spot from whence he had set 
out, it will be difficult for us to pronounce him a 
great commander. He finds himself at the head 
of six hundred thousand men, and he provides 
neither for the clothing, nor subsistence of his 
troops. God does every thing. He remedies 
every thing. He feeds and clothes the people by 
the working of miracles. Moses then, in himself, 
is nothing ; and his impotence is a proof of his 
having been guided and protected by the arm of 
the Almighty ; therefore, in weighing his charac- 
ter, we shall speak of him as a man, and not as 
the minister of God. His person, in this point of 
view, is the object of a more sublime research. 

He sets out with the avowed purpose of going 
into the country of the Canaanites, to the west of 
the river Jordan, in the land of Jericho ; which is, 
in fact, the only part worth cultivating in the whole 
province ; but, instead of taking this route, he turns 
to the east, between Esion-gaber and the Dead 
Sea; a wild, barren, and mountainous country; 
on which, not a single shrub, or bush, grows; 
and, without springs, if we except a few wells of 
brackish, and unwholesome water. 

The Canaanites, or Phoenicians, on hearing of 
this irruption of a foreign people, come down to 
oppose, and fight with them, in the deserts of 
Cades-Barnea. How did it happen that Moses 
subjected himself to a defeat, at the head of six 
hundred thousand men, in a country, which, at 



230 OF MOSES. 

the present day, does not contain three thousand 
inhabitants? At the expiration of thirty-nine 
years, he obtains two victories ; bat, he does not 
fulfil a single object of his legislation. He, and 
his people, die, before they set foot in the coun- 
try, which, it was their avowed intention to sub- 
jugate. 

A legislator, according to our vulgar notions, 
ought to make himself beloved and respected; 
but he should not push his severities to the extent 
of barbarism and cruelty. He ought not, instead 
of inflicting by the proper legal authorities, those 
punishments which the guilty deserved, to cause 
a large part of the nation to be massacred at ran- 
dom, by the other part. 

Does it appear probable, we had almost said, 
possible, that Moses, at the age of a hundred and 
twenty years, could, actuated only by his own 
feelings, have been so inhuman, so inured to car- 
nage, as to command the Levites to massacre, 
without distinction, twenty-three thousand of their 
brethren, and that too, for the fault, or at least 
the collusion, of his own brother, who ought to 
have sacrificed his life, rather than make a calf to 
be worshipped ? What ! after this unworthy ac- 
tion, his brother is made High Priest, and twenty- 
three thousand men are massacred ! ! 

Moses had espoused a Midianitish woman, the 
daughter of Jethro, the high priest of Midian, in 
Arabia Petraea. Jethro had conferred numerous 



OF MOSES. 231 

favours upon him ; and permitted his son to ac- 
company him, as a guide, in the wilderness. Now, 
let us ask, by what cruelty, so opposed to all po- 
licy, (to judge only according to our feeble notions) 
must Moses have been actuated, in commanding 
the immolation, or massacre, of twenty-four thou- 
sand of his countrymen, under the pretext that a 
Jew had been discovered cohabiting with a woman 
of Midian ? And how can it be said, after all these 
amazing and horrid butcheries, that " Moses was 
the most meek and gentle of men ?" Can we do 
otherwise than acknowledge, that, humanly speak- 
ing, such horrid cruelties, are, alike, revolting to 
reason, and to nature. But, on the other hand, 
if we consider Moses as the minister of the designs 
and punishments of God, every thing becomes 
changed in appearance ; we do not behold a man, 
acting as a man, but as an instrument of the Divi- 
nity ; and, of whom, as such, we have no right 
to demand an account. We have only to adore, 
and be silent. 

If Moses had been the founder of his religion, 
like Zoroaster, Thauth, the first Bramins, Numa, 
Mahomet, and many others, we should be led to 
ask him, why, in the formation of it, he did not 
incorporate those doctrines, which are the most 
efficacious and useful, in restraining lust and 
crimes ? In other words, why did he not an- 
nounce, in plain and direct terms, the immortality 
of the soul, and rewards and punishments after 



232 OF MOSES. 

death ? These dogmas had been then long known, 
and admitted, in Egypt, Phoenicia, Mesopotamia, 
Persia, and India. We should say to him, " You 
" have been instructed in all the wisdom of the 
" Egyptians, you are a legislator, and you abso- 
" lutely neglect the principal dogma of the Egyp- 
" tians ; a dogma, most essential to man, and of 
" so salutary and sacred a nature, that your own 
" people, the Jews, ignorant as they were\, esta- 
" blished their belief in it, a long time after the 
" termination of your career ; at least, it was partly 
'•' adopted by the Essenians and Pharisees, at the 
" end of a thousand years." 

Against one of our ordinary legislators, this 
would be an overwhelming objection ; but, as we 
have before noticed, it loses its weight, and falls 
to the ground, when we consider, that the laws in 
question, were given by God himself; who had 
deigned to declare himself the King of the Jewish 
people ; temporally punishing, and rewarding, 
them ; and, who would not reveal to them the 
knowledge of the immortality of the soul, and of 
eternal rewards and punishments, but at the ap- 
pointed time, marked out by his decrees. In a 
human point of view, almost every action of the 
Jews is of the most horrible and revolting descrip- 
tion. That which is said to be divine, is far be- 
yond our weak and feeble comprehension. Both 
the one and the other compel us to be silent. 

There have been men of profound science and 



OF MOSES. 233 

learning, who have carried their historical doubts 
so far, as to question even the existence of such 
an individual as Moses ; his whole life, from his 
cradle to the grave, is so full of prodigy and won- 
der, that it has appeared to them, nothing but an 
imitation of the ancient Arabian fables ; and, par- 
ticularly, of that of the ancient Bacchus.* They 
cannot reduce the existence of Moses to any defi- 
nite period ; the name even, of Pharaoh, or king 
of Egypt, in whose reign he is said to have lived, 
is altogether unknown. No monument, or track 
of any kind, remains to us, of the country in which 
he is said to have travelled. To these learned 
men, it has appeared impossible, that Moses 
could have governed two or three millions of peo- 
ple, in uninhabitable deserts, for the space of forty 
years ; in a country, where, at the present day, 
only two or three hordes of vagabonds, consisting 
of three or four thousand men, can find subsist- 
ence. We are far from adopting this rash opi- 
nion, which would at once sap the foundation of 
all Jewish history. 

Neither shall we adopt the opinions of Aben- 
Esra, Maimonides, Nugnes, or the author of the 
Jewish ceremonies, although they are strength- 
ened by those of Le Clerc, Middleton, the learned 
theologians of Holland, and even the great Newton 
himself. These illustrious and most learned men, 

* See Bacchus, page 157, ante. 



234 OF MOSES. 

are of opinion, that neither Moses nor Joshua, 
could, possibly, write the books which are attri- 
buted to them ; they say, that their history, and 
their laws, would have been engraven on stone; 
if, in fact, they ever had existence ; moreover, 
that this art requires great labour and perseverance 
to accomplish ; and that, it was quite impossible 
to cultivate it in the desert, or wilderness. These 
learned men ground their objections, (as may be 
seen elsewhere) in anticipations and evident con- 
tradictions. We embrace, in opposition to these 
great and learned men, the common and generally 
received opinion ; which is that of the Synagogue, 
and of the Church, whose infallibility we are bound 
to acknowledge. 

Far be it from us, to accuse Le Clerc, Middle- 
ton, and Newton of impiety. God forbid ! we 
should be guilty of such great presumption. We 
feel convinced, that if the books of Moses, and of 
Joshua, and the rest of the Pentateuch, did not 
appear, to them, to have been written by those 
Israelitish heroes, they were not the less persuad- 
ed that these books were the produce of divine 
inspiration. They recognize the finger of God in 
every line in Genesis, Joshua, Samson, and Ruth. 
The Jewish historian^ strictly speaking, was 
merely the secretary of God ; it was God, of 
course, who dictated every word. Could it be 
possible for Newton to think otherwise? We 
feel that he could not. May God preserve us, 



OF MOSES. 235 

from becoming like those perverse hypocrites, who 
lay hold of any, and every pretext, for accusing 
all great and learned men of impiety and irreli- 
gion, as they were formerly accused of magick, 
witchcraft, &c. ! We should feel that we were 
acting contrary to every principle of integrity, as 
well as cruelly insulting the Christian religion, if 
we were so abandoned as to attempt to persuade 
the public, that the most learned men, and the 
greatest geniuses, of the earth, were not true 
Christians. The more we respect the church ( to 
which we are subject, the more we are convinced 
that that church tolerates the opinions of those 
learned and virtuous men, with that charity and 
forbearance which characterises it ; and is, indeed, 
its distinguishing feature. 



236 



CHAPTER XLI. 

OF THE JEWS, FROM MOSES TO SAUL. 

We shall not here enquire why Joshuah or 
Josue, the captain of the Jews, on conducting his 
horde or clan, from the east of the river Jordan, to 
the west, towards Jericho, found it necessary for 
the Deity to suspend the course of that river ; 
which, in that part, is not more than forty feet 
wide, and over which it would have been easy for 
him to throw a temporary bridge of planks, and 
still more easy for him and his people to ford it 
over. There were several fords, or passes, to this 
river; witness that where the Israelites slaughtered 
forty-two thousand of their brethren, who could 
not pronounce the word Shibboleth. 

Neither do we inquire why the walls of Jericho, 
fall at the sound of the trumpet? These are new 
miracles, which it pleased God to work, in favour 
of the people, of whom he had declared himself 
the King ; and which do not belong to historical 
research. Upon the same grounds, we refrain from 
examining, by what right, Joshua came to destroy 
the towns and villages, whose inhabitants knew 



OF THE JEWS, FROM MOSES TO SAUL. 237 

nothing, nor had ever before heard speak, of him, 
or his people ? The Jews say, " We are de- 
" scended from Abraham. Abraham travelled 
" through this country about four hundred years 
" ago ; your country therefore belongs to us ; 
" and we are come to slaughter your mothers, 
" wives, and children." On this point, Fabricius 
and Holstenius have raised the following objec- 
tion. What would be said, if a Norwegian came 
into Germany, with a few hundreds of his coun- 
trymen, and were to say to the Germans, " About 
" four hundred years ago, one of our countrymen, 
" the son of a potter, travelled in this country, 
" near Vienna, and therefore Austria belongs to 
" us, and we are come to massacre all the inha- 
" bitants of the country, in the name of the Lord?" 
The same authors very properly remark, that the 
times of Joshua, are not ours ; and that it does not 
belong to us, to view with a profane eye, the 
things which are divine, and that, above all, God 
had a right to punish the sins of the Canaanites, 
by the hands of the Jews. It is said, that no 
sooner was Jericho in a defenceless state, than 
the Jews sacrifice to their God, all the inhabitants 
— old men, women, young maidens, and suckling 
children, and also, all the animals. None were ex- 
cepted, but the abandoned prostitute, who had 
concealed at her house the Jewish spies; but 
whence the use of these spies, since the walls of 
Jericho were destined to fall at the sound of 



238 OF THE JEWS, 

trumpets ? And, to what purpose, destroy all the 
animals, which might have been of great use? 

With respect to this woman, whom the Vulgate 
calls Meretrix, she would appear to have afterwards 
led a more virtuous life, as she is described as 
being one of king David's grandmothers. The 
whole of these events are figurative ; prophecies, 
which remotely announce the law disgraced. 
Once more, we repeat, that these are mysteries 
with which we do not feel warranted to meddle. 

By the book of Joshua, we learn, that this 
chief, having made himself master of part of the 
land of Canaan, had thirty-one of their petty 
kings hanged : that is, thirty-one chiefs of the 
towns and villages which he had destroyed, and 
who had dared to defend their fire-sides, their 
wives and their children. We ought here to pros- 
trate ourselves before that Divine Providence, 
who thought proper to punish the sins of these 
kings by the sword of Joshua. 

It is not to be wondered at, that the neighbour- 
ing people combined against the Jews ; who in 
their eyes, could only appear as a band of execra- 
ble robbers and depredators ; and not, as the sa- 
cred instruments of divine vengeance, and of the 
future salvation of the human race. They were 
subdued, and reduced to a state of bondage and 
slavery, by Chushan, king of Mesopotamia. Me- 
sopotamia, to be sure, is a considerable distance 
from Jericho ; it was therefore necessary, for 



FROM MOSES TO SAUL. 239 

Chushan, to conquer Syria, and a part of Pales- 
tine. Be that as it may, they were enslaved 
eight years ; and they remained in a state of total 
inactivity for the successive sixty-two years. It 
is evident, that even during these sixty-two years, 
they must have been in a state of subjection, 
since they were commanded, by the laws, to make 
a conquest of all the country, from the Mediterra- 
nean to the Euphrates : the whole of this vast 
country was promised to them ; and, if they had 
been free, there can be no doubt but they would 
have been tempted to seize upon it. They were also 
in bondage eighteen years, to Eglon, king of the 
Moabites, who was assassinated by Ehud, or Aod ; 
and again, for the space of twenty-years, to a 
people of Canaan, whom they do not name ; when 
they were delivered by the warlike prophetess 
Deborah. They were again brought to subjection, 
by the Midianites ; and continued in bondage, 
seven years ; when Gideon effected their deliver- 
ance. 

After this, they were conquered by the Philis- 
tines (properly Phoenicians), to whom they re- 
mained in subjection eighteen years, until the 
time of Jephthah. They were again subjected to 
the same people, and continued in a state of bond- 
age for the space of forty years, until the time of 
Saul. But what tends greatly to confound our 
judgment is, that they were slaves even in the 
time of Sampson, when the jaw-bone of an ass 



240 OF THE JEWS, 

sufficed for Sampson to slay a thousand Philis- 
tines, and that it pleased God to work great mira- 
cles by the hand of Sampson. 

Here let us pause a moment, in order to take 
a short sketch of the number of Jews extermi- 
nated by their own brethren, or by the command 
of God himself, from the time that they were 
wanderers in the wilderness, to the time of their 
election of a king by lot : — 
Slaughtered by the Levites, after the wor- 
ship of the Golden Calf made by Aaron, 

the brother of Moses 23,000 

Consumed by lire for the revolt of Korah 

and others 250 

Slaughtered, or as it is said, died in the 

plague for the same rebellion 14,700 

Slaughtered for having commerce with Mi- 

dianitish women 24,000 

Slain at one of the passes of Jordan, found 
incapable of pronouncing the word Shib- 
boleth 42,000 

Killed by the Benjamites, whom they at- 
tacked 40,000 

Benjamites killed by the other tribes .... 45,000 
When the Ark was taken by the Philis- 
tines, and God having afflicted them 
with emerods, they bring the Ark to 
Bethshemeth, and make an offering of 
five golden emerods, and five golden 



FROM MOSES TO SAUL. , 241 

mice, there were slaughtered of the 
Bethshemites for looking into the Ark, 50,700 



Sum total 239,650 



Here we have two hundred and thirty-nine thou- 
sand six hundred and fifty Jews, exterminated either 
by the command of God himself, or in their civil 
wars ; without reckoning those who perished in 
the desert, or wilderness, and those who fell in 
the different battles with the Canaanites, &c. 

If we are allowed to look upon the Jews in the 
same light as other nations, we shall be at a loss 
to conceive how the children of Jacob could have 
multiplied to such an extraordinary degree, as to 
bear such a loss, i But God, who conducted and 
watched over them — God, who proved and 
punished them, made this nation so very different 
from all others, that we are bound to look on it 
with other eyes, than those with which we should 
examine the rest of the world ; and not judge of 
those events, as we would of the common and 
general occurrences of other nations. 



242 



CHAPTER XLII. 

OF THE JEWS, SUBSEQUENT TO SAUL. 

The Jews do not seem to have been in a much 
better condition under their kings than under 
their judges. 

Their first king, Saul, is reduced to the ne- 
cessity of committing suicide. Ishbosheth, and 
Mephibosheth, his sons, are assassinated. David 
delivers up to the Gibeonites seven of Saul's 
grandsons, who were cruelly murdered. He also 
orders his son Solomon to put to death Adonijah, 
his other son, and Joab his general. Their king 
Asa destroys a considerable number of the people 
in Jerusalem, and Baasha assassinates Nadab, the 
son of Jeroboam, and all his family and kindred. 
Jehu assassinates Joram and Ochosias, Ahab's 
seventy sons, forty-two brethren of Ochosias, and 
all their kindred. Athaliah assassinates all her 
grandsons except Joash ; and she, in her turn, is 
assassinated by the high priest, Jehoiada. The 
servants of Joash conspire against him, and as- 



OF THE JEWS, SUBSEQUENT TO SAUL. 243 

sassinate him ; and his son Amaziah experiences 
the same fate. Zachariah is slain by Shallum ; 
who, after a short reign, is slain by Menahem. 
Of this last wretch (Menahem), it is said in the 
Scriptures, " that he ripped up all the women 
" that were with child, in Tipshah." Pekahiah, 
the son of Menahem, is assassinated by Pekah, 
the son of Remaliah : and Pekah himself is as- 
sassinated by Hoshea, the son of Elah. Of Ma- 
nasseh, it is said, that he • ■ shed innocent blood 
" very much, till he had filled Jerusalem from one 
" end to another." And Amon, the son of Ma- 
nasseh, is assassinated, &c. 

In the midst of these massacres and assassina- 
tions, ten tribes are carried away captive by the 
king of Babylon ; and all, with the exception of 
a few labourers, whom they leave to till the ground, 
become slaves, and are for ever dispersed. 

There yet remained two tribes ; who, in their 
turn, were also carried into captivity, and con- 
tinued in a state of bondage seventy years ; at 
the expiration of which time, they obtain per- 
mission of their conquerors and masters, to re- 
turn to Jerusalem. These two tribes, with the 
few remaining Jews in Samaria, who had be- 
come incorporated with the new foreign inha- 
bitants, were finally subjected to the kings of 
Persia. 

When Alexander invaded and conquered Persia, 
Judea was comprised in his conquests. After 

r 2 



244 OF THE JEWS, 

Alexander, the Jews continued subject, sometimes 
to the Selucidae, his successors in Syria ; and 
sometimes to the Ptolemies, his successors in 
Egypt. Always in a state of subjection, and ob- 
taining (many of them) a livelihood, by acting in 
the capacity of brokers, in different parts of Asia. 
The Jews obtained some favours of Ptolemy 
Epiphanes, the king of Egypt. A Jew, named 
Joseph, or Josephus, was made farmer-general 
of the taxes in Lower Syria and Judea, which 
belonged to this Ptolemy. This is, in fact, the 
most peaceable and happy state of the Jews, for 
a long time previous. It was at this time that 
they built the third part of their city, subsequently 
called the inclosure of the Maccabees, or the wall 
of the Maccabees, because they finished and com- 
pleted the work. 

From the yoke of Ptolemy, king of Egypt, 
they pass over to that of Antiochus Theos, king 
of Syria. As they had become rich in their posts 
of farmers-general, they became insolent and 
audacious, and rebelled against their master, An- 
tiochus. It was in the time of the Maccabees ; 
of whom the Jews of Alexandria evinced great 
courage, and performed many great actions. The 
Maccabees, however, with all their exertions, 
could not prevent the general of Antiochus Eu- 
pater, the son of Antiochus Epiphanes, from 
razing to the ground the walls of the temple, 
leaving only the sanctuary standing, and cutting 



SUBSEQUENT TO SAUL. 245 

off" the head of Onias, the high priest, who was 
considered ^the instigator of the revolt. 3.S 

The Jews were never more inviolably attached 
to their law, than under the government of the 
kings of Syria; they no longer worshipped strange 
gods ; and it was at this time that their religion 
was irrevocably fixed. Yet, it was at this very 
time, they were more miserable than ever ; con- 
tinually looking forward to their deliverance ; re- 
lying on the prophecies and predictions of their 
prophets ; and full of expectation, that the pro- 
mises of succour from their God would be duly 
fulfilled. But they were, alas ! abandoned by 
that Providence, whose decrees are unknown to 
men. 

They respired a little during the intestine wars 
of the kings of Syria ; but they soon fell out 
among themselves, and took up arms against each 
other. As they had no kings, and the office and 
dignity of High Priest was the greatest among 
them, it was to obtain this exaltation that gave 
rise to the formation of parties, opposed to each 
other by a spirit of feeling of the most violent and 
rancorous nature. In short, this dignity was ob- 
tained only sword in hand, and the high priest 
arrived at the sanctuary over the dead bodies of 
his rivals. 

Hircan, of the race of the Maccabees, being 
made high priest (subject always to the Syrians), 
caused the sepulchre of David to be opened, in 



246 OF THE JEWS, 

which the exaggerate-!*, Josephus, pretends, that 
he found three thousand talents. It was at a 
time that they were rebuilding the temple, under 
Nehemiah, that it became necessary to search for 
this supposed treasure. Hircan, they say, ob- 
tained leave of Antiochus Sidetes, to coin money. 
But, as there never was any Jewish coin extant, 
the treasure reported to have been found in the 
sepulchre of David, was not, in all probability, 
very considerable. 

It is worthy of notice, that this high priest, 
Hircan, was of the sect of the Sadducees ; and, 
consequently, did not believe in the immortality 
of the soul, nor in angels ; this was the subject 
of fresh quarrels, which now began to divide the 
Sadducees and the Pharisees. These latter con- 
spired against Hircan, and would willingly have 
condemned him to suffer imprisonment, and the 
degrading punishment of the lash. He, however, 
avenges himself of all his enemies, and governs 
despotically. His son, Aristobulus, ventured to 
declare himself king, during the intestine troubles 
of Syria and Egypt. He was one of the most 
cruel tyrants who had ever oppressed the Jewish 
people. This Aristobulus, who was extremely 
punctual and exact in going up into the temple 
to pray, and in never eating pork, nevertheless, 
as a pious son, starved his mother to death, and 
assassinated his own brother Antigonus. His 



SUBSEQUENT TO SAUL. 247 

successor was John, or Johannes, as wicked, in 
every respect, as his predecessor. 

This Johannes (stained with crimes), left two 
sons, who made war upon each other. These 
two sons were Aristobulus and Hircan. Aristo- 
bulus prevailed, expelled his brother, and de- 
clared himself king. The Romans at that time 
were subjugating Asia. Pompey arrives among 
them, and puts things somewhat in order. He 
takes the temple, hangs the rebels at the doors, 
and loads with irons the self-declared king Aris- 
tobulus. 

This Aristobulus had a son, who presumed to 
give himself the name of Alexander. He stirs up 
a revolt, and puts himself at the head of a few 
troops ; and concludes, by being hung, by order 
of Pompey. 

At last, Marc Antony confers the dignity of 
king of the Jews on an Idumean Arab, of the 
country of those Amalekites who were so much 
hated and accursed of the Jews. It was that 
very Herod whom St. Matthew accuses of 
slaughtering " all the young children in Beth- 
" lehem, and in all the coasts thereof," upon his 
being informed that there was a king of the Jews, 
born in that village ; and, that three of the Magi, 
or wise men, conducted by a star, had been to 
offer him presents. 

Thus then, it appears, that the Jews were, al- 
most always, in a state of subjugation, or slavery. 



248 OF THE JEWS, 

It is well known in what manner they rebelled 
against the Romans, and how that Titus had them 
all sold in the open market, at the price of 
that very animal, whose flesh they would not 
touch. 

They experienced a still more miserable fate, 
in the reigns of the emperors Trajan and Adrian ; 
and they well deserved it. In the reign of Trajan, 
there was a terrible earthquake, which swallowed 
up some of the most beautiful cities of Syria. 
The Jews considered this, as the signal of the 
wrath of God against the Romans ; they again 
collected themselves together in considerable 
numbers, and took up arms in some parts of 
Africa, and in Cyprus : they were animated by 
such a fury, that they devoured the living mem- 
bers of the Romans, whom they slaughtered. But 
they were quickly brought to their senses, and all 
who were guilty, died under the dreadful punish- 
ment of the rack, or torture. Those who re- 
mained, were animated by the same rage, in the 
reign of Adrian ; when Barcochebas, calling him- 
self their Messiah, put himself at their head. 
This desperate fanaticism was not subdued with- 
out great difficulty, and shedding torrents of 
blood. 

It is surprising that there are any Jews re- 
maining in the world. The celebrated Benjamin 
of Tudela, a very learned Rabbin, who travelled 
through Asia and Europe, in the twelfth century, 



SUBSEQUENT TO SAUL. 249 

reckoned nearly three hundred and eighty thou- 
sand of them, ■ — as well Jews as Samaritans ; for 
we think it too ridiculous to mention the pre- 
tended kingdom of Thema, towards Thibet, where 
this Benjamin (in this respect, certainly the de- 
ceiver, or deceived) pretends, that there are three 
hundred thousand men of the ten ancient tribes, 
collected together under a sovereign. The Jews 
have never had any country, or settlements, to 
call their own, since the reign of Vespasian ; if we 
except a few villages in the deserts of Arabia 
Felix, towards the Red Sea. Mahomet, at first, 
was under the necessity of sparing them ; but 
finally, he destroyed the petty dominion or go- 
vernment, which they had established to the 
north of Mecca. It is since the time of Mahomet, 
that they have actually ceased to exist, as a 
people. 

In following simply the thread of the history 
of the petty Jewish nation, we shall perceive, 
that its termination, or extinction, was such as 
might have been very naturally expected. They 
themselves tell us (and that boastingly), that they 
came out of Egypt little, if any thing, better than 
a band of robbers ; carrying off every thing which 
they had borrowed of the Egyptians ; they make 
it their glory to have spared neither old age, sex, 
nor even childhood, in the villages and towns 
which they subdued. They make a parade of 
their irreconcilable hatred to all other nations and 



250 OF THE JEWS, 

people ; they rebel against all their masters and 
governors ; always superstitious, eager to possess 
the property of others; barbarous and cruel in 
the extreme ; servile and mean in a state of ad- 
versity, and insolent in prosperity. Such were 
the Jews, in the eyes of all the Greeks and Ro- 
mans, who could, and did, read their books : but, 
in the eyes of Christians enlightened by faith, 
they are declared as our forerunners, and as 
having prepared the way for us. They were (ac- 
cording to some) the heralds of Providence. 

The two other nations, who are wanderers like 
the Jews in the East, and who, like them also, 
form no alliance with any other people, are the 
Banians and the Guebres, of the race of the Parsis, 
or Persians. These Banians are (like the Jews), 
active in commercial pursuits, and are believed to 
be the descendants of the first peaceable inha- 
bitants in India : they keep themselves separate 
and distinct, neither forming any alliance, nor 
mixing with, any other people : in this respect, 
they resemble the Bramins. The Parsis are the 
very same people, whom we now call Persians ; 
formerly the lords and rulers of the East; and 
sovereigns of the Jews. They have been a dis- 
persed people since the time of Omar ; and cul- 
tivate, in peace, the country in which they es- 
tablished themselves ; faithful to the ancient re- 
ligion of the Magi ; worshipping only one God ; 
and conserving the sacred fire ; which they re- 



SUBSEQUENT TO SAUL. 251 

gard as the work, and as an emblem, of the Di- 
vinity. 

We do not take into account the remnant of 
the Egyptians, secret worshippers of Isis ; who 
now no longer exist, but as strolling and wandering 
vagabonds : and will, no doubt, shortly be totally 
annihilated. 



252 



CHAPTER XLIII. 

OF THE JEWISH PROPHETS. 

We shall be very careful not to confound the Na- 
bimand Roheim of the Hebrews, with the impos- 
tors of other nations. We are aware that God made 
himself known to the Jews only ; and held com- 
munication with no other people ; except, in a 
few particular instances, such as, with Balaam, 
the prophet of Mesopotamia, whom he inspired, 
and made to pronounce the very reverse of what 
Balak wished him to do. This Balaam was the 
prophet of some other God ; and yet, it is not said 
that he was a false prophet. We have already re- 
marked, that the priests of Egypt were prophets 
and seers. What precise definition, or meaning, 
was attached to this word ? That of " Inspired" 
Sometimes, those who were inspired revealed the 
past; sometimes, the future ; sometimes they con- 
tented themselves by speaking in a figurative style. 
Therefore, when St. Paul quotes this verse of the 
Greek poet Aratus, " In God we live, and move, 
" and have our being;" he gives this poet the 
name of prophet. 



OF THE JEWISH PROPHETS. 253 

Was the title and quality of prophet, among the 
Hebrews, a particular dignity or office, conferred 
by the law on certain select persons, like the dig- 
nity of Pythia at Delphos ? No ! nothing like 
it. Those only, were prophets, who felt them- 
selves inspired; or who had seen visions. Thence 
it frequently happened, that false prophets arose, 
having no distinct mission, and who frequently 
brought great misfortunes on the people ; like the 
prophets of Cevennes, at the commencement of 
the present century.* 

It was difficult to distinguish between the false 
prophet, and the true. Therefore, it was, that 
Manasseh, the king of Judah, put the prophet 
Isaiah to the most cruel death. King Zedekiah 
could not decide between the prophets Jeremiah 
and Hananiah, whose predictions were directly 
opposed to each other ; and he put Jeremiah in 
prison. The prophet Ezekiel was killed by the 
Jews, his companions in slavery. The prophet 
Micah, or Michaiah, having prophesied evil tidings 
to the kings Ahab and Jehoshaphat, another pro- 
phet named Tsedekia, or Zedekiah, the son of Che- 
naanah, smote Micah on the cheek, exclaiming, 
" Which way went forth the spirit of the Lord 
" from me to thee?" Hosea, in the ninth chap- 
ter of the book of that name, declares that all the 
prophets are fools, " stultum prophetam, insanum 
" virum spiritualem." The prophets looked upon, 
* The 18th. 



254 OF THE JEWISH PROPHETS. 

and in fact called, each other, visionaries and 
liars. There was therefore no other method of 
distinguishing the false prophet from the true, 
than by waiting for the accomplishment of the 
predictions, respectively announced. 

The prophet Elisha, having gone up to Damas- 
cus in Syria, the king, Benhadad, who was sick, 
sent him forty camels laden with presents, in 
order to know from him, whether he should re- 
cover of his disease ? Elisha replied, " That he 
" might certainly recover ;" but that the Lord had 
shewn him that the king "would surely die." 
The king, in fact, died. Now, if Elisha had not 
been a true prophet of the Lord, he might very 
justly be suspected of gross equivocation in this 
reply ; for, if the king had not died, he would say 
that he had foretold his cure by saying, " that he 
might certainly recover," and that he had not 
specified the time of his death. But, having con- 
firmed his mission by such transcendant miracles, 
we cannot for a moment doubt the veracity and 
uprightness of his character. 

We shall not here inquire, (as some commen- 
tators have done) into the meaning of the double 
portion of spirit, which Elisha received from 
Elijah ; nor, what is signified, by the mantle 
which Elijah gave him, when he was taken up 
into heaven in a chariot of fire, and horses of fire ; 
precisely corresponding with the poetic descrip- 
tion which the Greeks give of the Car, or Chariot 



OF THE JEWISH PROPHETS. 255 

of Apollo. Neither shall we attempt to investi- 
gate the typical, or mystical sense, of those forty- 
two young children, who, on seeing Elisha going 
up by the way to Bethel, say to him jestingly, 
" Go up thou bald head — Go up thou bald head," 
and of the divine vengeance which the prophet drew 
down upon them, in the shape of two she-bears, 
which are said to have devoured these little inno- 
cent creatures. The facts are revealed to us ; but 
the sense in which they are to be taken may pro- 
bably be concealed. 

We ought here to remark particularly, a cus- 
tom of the East ; which the Jews carried to an ex- 
tent, which astonishes us. This custom was, not 
only to speak in allegories, but to express by the 
most singular actions the things they wished to be 
understood. And indeed, at this time, nothing 
could be more natural than this custom ; for as 
men had for such a length of time expressed their 
thoughts and ideas in hieroglyphicks, they natu- 
rally acquired the habit of speaking in the same 
figurative manner in which they wrote. 

Thus according to Herodotus, the Scythians 
sent to Darah, whom we call Darius, a bird, a 
mouse, a frog, and five arrows ; by which they 
signified, that if Darius did not flee, or run away, 
as swiftly as a bird, or conceal himself like a frog, 
or a mouse, he would assuredly perish by their 
arrows. The story may not, possibly, be true ; 
but it is an evident testimony of the emblematical 



256 OF THE JEWISH PROPHETS. 

communications, common among men in those 
remote times. 

Kings were accustomed to write and speak in 
enigmas ; of which we have an example in Hiram 
(the king of Tyre), in Solomon, and in the queen of 
Sheba. Tarquinius Superbus being consulted by 
his son, when walking in his garden, as to the 
manner he should act towards the Gabii, (or Ga- 
bians) answered him, by knocking off the heads of 
the poppies, which grew much higher than the 
other flowers ; by which he meant that the great 
and principal people were to be exterminated, and 
the lower orders spared. 

It is to these hieroglyphicks that we are indebt- 
ed for those fables, of which the first works of 
men were composed. Fable is of much greater 
antiquity, than simple narrative. 

It is necessary for us to be somewhat famili- 
arised with antiquity, to prevent our being shock- 
ed and disgusted by the actions, and enigmatical 
discourses, of the Jewish prophets. 

Isaiah wishing to signify to the king A chas, or 
Ahaz, that in a few years he will be delivered 
from the power of the king of Syria, and the petty 
king of Samaria, who had formed an alliance 
against him, says to the king : " Before the child 
" shall know to refuse the evil and choose the 
'■' good, thou shalt be delivered from the power of 
" these two kings." And again, " The Lord shall 
" shave with a razor that is hired" (namely, by the 



OF THE JEWISH PROPHETS. 257 

king of Assyria) " the head, the hair of the feet, 
" and the beard," &c. &c. Then the prophet takes 
two witnesses, Zechariah and Uriah ; he sleeps 
with the prophetess, and she brings forth a son ; 
the Lord gives him the name of Maher-shalal-hash- 
baz, (divide quickly the spoils,) and this means, that 
they should take of, and divide, the spoils of their 
enemies. 

We shall not enter into a discussion of the allego- 
rical sense, and infinitely respectable construction 
which is given to this prophecy ; we confine our- 
selves merely to the examination of these singular 
and astonishing customs, to us, of the present day. 

The same prophet, Isaiah, walks naked, and 
barefoot, through Jerusalem ; to indicate, that the 
Egyptians will be entirely destroyed, and rooted 
out, by the king of Babylon. 

What ! it will be asked, is it possible that a 
man could be guilty of such indecency, as to walk 
naked through the streets of Jerusalem, without 
being taken up by the police ? Yes, without 
doubt it was so; Diogenes was not the only one 
of antiquity, who had boldness and impudence 
sufficient, for so gross an action. Strabo, in his 
15th Book, says, that there was, in India, a sect 
of the Bramins, who would have felt ashamed to 
JX^ wear any kind of clothing. At the present 
time, we understand, it is not uncommon, in India, 
to meet with penitents going about entirely naked, 
and laden with chains ; as an expiation for the 

s 



258 OF THE JEWISH PROPHETS. 

sins and transgressions of the people. We believe 
the same habits prevail, to a certain extent, in 
Africa and Turkey. These manners and customs 
are not ours ; nor do we believe, that, in the time 
of Isaiah, there was a single usage, or custom, 
which bears any kind of resemblance to the cus- 
toms and habits which prevail among us, and the 
other nations of the world, at the present day. 

The prophet Jeremiah was only fourteen years of 
age, when he received the gift of the spirit of pro- 
phecy. As he laboured under a difficulty of speech, 
the Lord (he says) put forth his hand, and touched 
his mouth. The first thing which he sees, in his 
character of a prophet, is a seething-pot turned 
towards the north. This seething-pot is represent- 
ative of the people who were to come from the 
north ; and the boiling water prefigures the 
misfortunes and miseries of Jerusalem. The 
prophet is commanded to get a linen girdle, 
and put it on his loins ; and to go and hide 
it in a hole of the rock near the Euphrates. He 
afterwards returns, to take the girdle from thence, 
and finds it decayed and rotten. He, himself, ex- 
plains this parable to us, by saying, that, after the 
same manner, the pride of Jerusalem shall be de- 
cayed and brought down. He provides himself 
with bonds and yokes, and puts them on his 
neck. He then sends the bonds and yokes 
to the neighbouring kings, to warn them to sub- 



OF THE JEWISH PROPHETS. 259 

mit to Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, in 
favour of whom he prophecies. 

The prophet Ezekiel surprises us still more. 
He predicts to the Jews, " that the fathers shall 
" eat their sons, and the sons shall eat their fa- 
" thers." But, before this prediction, he saw a 
vision of four bright and sparkling animals, of the 
appearance of lightning, and four wheels, full of 
eyes. The animals have been, by us, denominat- 
ed cherubims. The prophet eats a roll of parch- 
ment, and he is bound with chains. He pourtrays 
the city of Jerusalem upon a tile ; and puts an 
iron pan upon the earth. Afterwards he lies three 
hundred and ninety days upon his left side, and 
forty days upon the right side. He is to eat 
bread of wheat, barley, beans, lentiles, and millet, 
covered with human excrement. "It is thus," 
says he, " that the children of Israel shall eat 
" their denied bread, among the nations whither 
" I will drive them." But after having eaten of 
this bread of misery, he is, on remonstrance, per- 
mitted by God to substitute " cow's dung for 
" man's dung." Again, the prophet cuts off his 
hair, and divides it into three portions ; — one part 
he throws into the fire, another he scatters in the 
wind, and the third he cuts with a sword round 
about the city of Jerusalem. 

The same prophet, Ezekiel, furnishes us with 
allegories of a still more surprising nature ; of 
which the following are a sketch : 

s 2 



260 OF JEWISH PROPHETS. 

He introduces the Lord, whom he represents as 
thus addressing him : — " When thou wast born, 
thy navel was not cut, neither wast thou washed 
in water to supple thee : thou wast not salted 

at all, nor swaddled at all thou hast 

increased and waxed great, thy breasts are 

fashioned, and thine hair is grown I 

passed by thee, and behold thy time was the 
time of love. I spread my skirt over thee, and 

covered thy nakedness I clothed thee 

with broidered work, and shod thee with bad- 
ger's skin .... I decked thee also with orna- 
ments, put bracelets upon thy hands, and a 
chain upon thy neck, and ear-rings in thy 

ears, &c But thou didst trust in thine 

own beauty, and playedst the harlot because 
of thy renown, and pouredst out thy fornica- 
tion on every one that passed by Thou 

hast built thy high place at every head of the 
way . . . and hast opened thy feet to every 
one that passed by ... . Thou hast also com- 
mitted fornication with the Egyptians, thy 

neighbours, great of flesh They give 

gifts to all whores : but thou givest thy gifts to 
all thy lovers," &c. &c. And again — " Aholah 
played the harlot when she was mine ; and 
she doted on her lovers, — princes, captains, 

and rulers, desirable young men Her 

sister, Aholibah, was more corrupt in her in- 
ordinate love, than she .... For she doted 



OF JEWISH PROPHETS. 261 

" upon her paramours, whose flesh is as the flesh 
" of horses, and whose issue is like the issue of 
" horses," &c. &c. 

These expressions appear to us very gross and 
indecent, but they were not so considered by 
the Jews. They signified the apostacies of Je- 
rusalem and Samaria; which apostacies were 
very frequently represented as a fornication and 
an adultery. Once more, we beg to impress on 
the minds of our readers, that we must not judge 
of the manners, customs, and the manner of 
speaking, among the ancients, by those which are 
in use among us. They are no more alike, than 
the French language is like the Chaldean and 
Arabick. 

The prophet Hosea, is commanded by the 
Lord,* to take a prostitute for a wife ; and he 
obeys. This prostitute bears him a son ; to 
whom the Lord gives the name of Jezreel. This 
is a type of the house of Jehu, which is destined 
to destruction, because Jehu had killed Joram in 
Jezreel. The Lord afterwards orders Hosea to 
espouse an adulterous woman, beloved of another: 
" according to the love of the Lord toward the 
" children of Israel, who look to other gods, and 
" love flagons of wine." j" In the prophecies of 
Amos, the Lord threatens " the kine of Bashan 
" that are in the mountain of Samaria, to take 
" them away with hooks, and their posterity with 

* Chapter I. f Chapter III. 



262 OF JEWISH PROPHETS. 

" fish-hooks,"* &c. &c. In short, every thing 
is directly opposed to the manners and customs 
common to other people, and to our turn of think- 
ing, in the present day. And, if we examine the 
customs of all the eastern nations, we shall find 
them equally opposed to, and different from, ours ; 
not only in remote, and ancient times, but even 
at the present period, when we are so much better 
acquainted with them, and have an opportunity 
of judging of them more correctly. 

* Chapter IV. 



263 



CHAPTER XLIV. 

OF. THE PRAYERS OF THE JEWS. 

There are but few remaining, of the prayers, in 
use among the people of ancient times. We have 
only two or three formulas, or set forms of prayer, 
used in the celebration of the mysteries, of which 
we have spoken so much at length ; and the 
ancient prayer of Isis, found in Apuleius. The 
Jews, however, have preserved their prayers ; we 
can therefore refer to, and make some slight com- 
mentary upon them. 

If we may form an opinion of the character of a 
nation, or people, by the prayers which they offer 
up to their God, we shall have no difficulty in de- 
ciding, that the Jews were a most carnal and san- 
guinary people. They appear, in their Psalms, 
to wish for the death and utter destruction of the 
sinner, instead of praying for his repentance and 
conversion ; and they intreat the Deity, in the 
truly oriental style, to bestow upon them every 
earthly blessing. Our limits will allow us to give 
but a few specimens — 

" Oh Lord ! water thou the hills from above, 



264 PRAYERS OF THE JEWS. 

" that the earth may be filled with the fruits of thy 
" works. 

" The Lord bringeth forth grass for the cattle, 
"and green herb for the service of man. — He 
' ' bringeth forth food out of the earth, and wine 
"that maketh glad the heart of man, and oil to 
" make him a cheerful countenance. Judah is as 
" a vessel filled with good things. The mountain 
" of the Lord is as a mountain of iron : it standeth 
"strong and is full of richness and plenty." 

By the following extracts, we shall perceive that 
the Jews heaped curses upon their enemies, in a 
style, not less figurative — 

" Ask of me and I shall give thee the heathen 
" for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of 
" the earth for thy possession. 

" Thou shalt bruise them with a rod of iron ; 
"and break them in pieces like a potter's vessel. 
" My God, reward thou my enemies according 
"to their deeds, and according to the wickedness 
" of their own inventions. Recompense them after 
" the work of their hands ; pay them that they 
"have deserved. 

" Let mine enemies be confounded, and put to 
" silence in the grave. 

" Oh Lord ! fight thou against them that fight 
" against me. Lay hand upon the shield and 
"buckler, and stand up to help me. Bring forth 
"the spear, and stop the way against them that 
" persecute me. Let mine enemies be confounded 



PRAYERS OF THE JEWS. 265 

" and put to shame. Let them be as the dust be- 
" fore the wind, and the angel of the Lord scatter- 
ing them. Let their way be dark and slippery. 
"Let a sudden destruction come upon them un- 
" awares. 

1 ' Let death come hastily upon them ; and let 
" them go down quick into hell, 

" Break their teeth, O God ! in their mouths ; 
" smite the jaw-bones of these lions, O Lord ! con- 
sume them in thy wrath; consume them that 
* they may perish. 

" Let them wander up and down for meat, and 
" grudge if they be not satisfied." 

" God shall wound the head of his enemies, and 
"the hairy scalp of such a one as goeth on still 
" in his wickedness. 

" That thy foot may be dipped in the blood of 
1 ' thine enemies, and that the tongue of thy dogs 
" may be red through the same. Pour out thine 
"indignation upon them, O Lord! and let thy 
" wrathful displeasure take hold of them. Let 
"their habitation be void ; and no man to dwell in 
" their tents. 

"Pour out thine indignation upon the heathen 
" that have not known thee. 

" My God, do thou unto them as unto the Midi- 
" anites, who perished at Endor and became as 
" the dung of the earth. Make them like unto a 
" wheel ; and as the stubble before the wind ; like 
" as the fire that burneth up the wood ; and as the 



266 PRAYERS OF THE JEWS. 

" flame that consumeth the mountains. Destroy 
'•' thou the wicked man, and set thou an ungodly 
" man to be ruler over him ; let Satan stand at his 
" right hand. When sentence is given upon him, 
" let him be condemned : and let his prayer be 
"turned into sin. Let his children be fatherless, 
" and his wife a widow.- Let his children be vaga- 
" bonds, and beg their bread. Let the extortioner 
" consume all that he hath. The righteous Lord 
" will hew them in pieces ; and all the enemies of 
" Zion shall be as the grass growing upon the 
" house tops, which withereth," &c. 

" Blessed shall he be that taketh thy little ones 
" and dasheththem against the stones," &c. &c. 

The above is but a small portion, of what may 
be found of a similar nature, in the Jewish Psalms, 
known, as the Psalms of David. 

It is evident that if God had turned a favourable 
ear to, and granted all the prayers of his "chosen 
people," there would be none but Jews to inhabit 
the earth ; for they detested all nations, and in 
their turn, were detested by them ; and their conti- 
nually praying to, and exhorting, the Deity, to ex- 
terminate and root out all those whom they hated, 
is very much like praying for the utter ruin and 
destruction of the whole of the inhabitants of 
the earth — excepting, always, themselves. But 
then, again, we are bound to call to our remem- 
brance, that the Jews were not only the cherished 
people of the Lord, but were also made the instru- 



PRAYERS OF THE JEWS. 267 

ments of his vengeance. It was by them that he 
punished the sins of other nations ; and, eventu- 
ally, made use of the same nations to punish the 
Jews. Thanks be to God ! that in the present 
day, it is no longer considered either human or 
allowable, to put up similar prayers to him ; and 
to call down a blessing upon those, who shall 
slaughter the mothers, and take their suckling 
children and cruelly dash them against the stones, 
&c. — The great Lord and God of all, being now 
recognized as the common parent and governor of 
all mankind, no one people ever thinks of pro- 
nouncing similar curses and imprecations against 
its neighbours. In the days of ignorance, dark- 
ness, and superstition, we sometimes were as cruel 
and barbarous in our conduct, as the Jews ; but 
in chaunting their Psalms, we have no idea of ap- 
plying their sense and construction to the people 
with whom we are at war. This is one of the great 
advantages, which the law of grace has over the 
law of rigour. — And, would to God ! that under the 
sanction of holy laws, and divine prayers, we our- 
selves had not shed the blood of our brethren, and 
ravaged the earth in the name of a God of mercy ! ! 
Is it not worse than blasphemy, to unite the name 
of a God of mercy and truth, with such horrid 
proceedings ? 



268 



CHAPTER XLV. 

OF FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS, THE HISTORIAN OF 
THE JEWS. 

It is by no means astonishing that the History 
of Flavins Josephus met with decided contradic- 
tions, and was opposed and denounced, when it 
made its appearance at Rome. There were not, 
it is true, many copies of it. The most skilful 
copiers could not transcribe it in less than three 
months. Books were very dear, and very scarce ; 
and but few Romans would condescend to read 
the annals of a pitiful nation of slaves, for whom 
both great and small, high and low, had an equal 
contempt. It appears, however, by the reply of 
Josephus to Apion, that it had found a few 
readers ; but we see, at the same time, that these 
few denounced the historian as a visionary and 
a liar. 

We must put ourselves in the place of the 
Romans in the days of Titus to have a proper 
idea of the contempt, mixed with horror, with 
which, the conquerors of the whole known world, 
and the legislators of nations, would look upon 



OF FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS. 269 

such a history as that of the Jewish people. 
These Romans could not very well know, that 
Josephus had extracted the greater number of 
the facts which he related from the Sacred writ- 
ings, dictated by the Holy Spirit. They could 
not have been informed that Josephus had en- 
larged upon those things which he had taken from 
the Bible, and passed over many others in silence. 
They were ignorant also, that the main points of 
many of his stories, were taken from the Third 
Book of Esdras ; and that this Book of Esdras is 
one of those which we term Apocryphal. 

Now, let us ask, what would be the opinion of 
a Roman senator on reading these oriental tales? 
Josephus relates (book x. ch. xii.) that Darius, 
the son of Astyages, had made the prophet Daniel, 
governor over three hundred and sixty cities ; 
when he prohibited, under the penalty of death, 
that any one should offer up prayer or petition, to 
any god whatever, for the space of thirty days. 
The Scriptures certainly do not report, that Da- 
niel governed three hundred and sixty cities. 

Josephus seems, subsequently, to entertain an 
idea of the conversion of the whole of Persia to 
Judaism. 

The same individual assigns a most singular 
cause for the rebuilding of the second Temple of 
the Jews, by Zorobabel. The following is his 
account of its origin. 

Zorobabel, says he, was the intimate friend of 



270 OF FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS. 

the king Darius. — What! a Jewish slave the in- 
timate friend of the King of kings ! It would be 
about the same thing, if one of our historians were 
to tell us, that one of the fanaticks of Cervennes, 
but just released from the galleys, had been the 
intimate friend of Lewis the Fourteenth ! 

But, be that as it may, according to Josephus, 
the king Darius, who was a prince of lively wit 
and genius, proposed to his whole court the solu- 
tion of the following question, (worthy of the gal- 
lant Mercury) to wit : — ' ' Which had the most 
power ? Wine, kings, or women ?" He who gave 
the best and most appropriate answer was to re- 
ceive the following reward : — A tiara of linen, — 
a purple robe, — a collar of gold, — to drink out 
of a gold cup, — repose on a gold bed, — to ride 
in a chariot of gold, drawn by horses in gold har- 
ness, — and to have letters patent conferring on 
him the dignity of " The King's Cousin." 

Darius seated himself on his throne of gold, for 
the purpose of hearing the replies of his academy 
of wits, to this knotty question. One gave a 
luminous dissertation in favour of wine, — another, 
in favour of kings. But, Zorobabel was decidedly 
in favour of women. " There is nothing," says 
he, " so powerful as they are ; for I have seen 
" Apamea, the mistress of my lord, the king, re- 
" peatedly give his sacred majesty little pats on 
" the cheek, and even to take off his turban, and 
" put it on her own head." 



OF FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS, 271 

Darius found himself so much amused at 
the ludicrous reply of Zorobabel, that he gave 
immediate orders for the rebuilding of the 
Temple ! 

This story very much resembles that of one of 
our most ingenious academicians, of " Soliman 
and the Cocked Nose," — which has served for the 
groundwork of a very pretty comic opera. But 
we are constrained to avow, that the author of this 
pretty piece has not been rewarded with a bed of 
gold, nor a chariot of gold ; nor has the king of 
France dignified him with the familiar appellation 
of " my cousin." — Alas ! we no longer live in the 
days of Darius. 

There can be no doubt but that the reveries and 
idle fancies, with which Josephus overloaded the 
sacred books, greatly weakened the truths which 
the Bible contains, in the eyes of the Pagans. 
The Romans could not distinguish between what 
had been composed by Josephus from an impure 
source, and the part he had extracted from the 
holy writings. The Bible, esteemed as sacred by 
us, was either unknown to the Romans, or equally 
despised by them, with Josephus himself. Every 
thing was the object of raillery or profound dis- 
dain, which the readers of the Jewish history con- 
ceived for it. The appearance of angels to the 
patriarchs, — the passage of the Red Sea, — ■ the 
ten plagues of Egypt, — the inconceivable in- 
crease of the Jewish people in so short a time, and 



272 OF FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS. 

in so small a country, with all the prodigies and 
miracles which signalized this petty, and almost 
unknown, people ; were treated with that con- 
tempt, which the conquerors of so many nations, 
(a majestic people, but to whom God had not re- 
vealed himself,) would naturally feel, for a petty 
and insignificant nation, reduced to a state of 
slavery. 

Josephus was well aware of the disgust and ab- 
horrence, every prophane author would entertain 
for his writings : for he says, in several places — 
" The reader may judge of the matter as he 
pleases." He was fearful of disgusting men of 
sense and judgment by his extraordinary narra- 
tive ; and he lessens, as much as possible, the faith 
which we all ought to put in such great and won- 
derful miracles. We perceive, as we run through 
his work, that he is every moment ashamed of 
being a Jew ; while he strives to recommend his 
nation to the favourable consideration of its con- 
querors. We must pardon the unfortunate Ro- 
mans, who were only blessed with common sense, 
and who had not yet received the gift of faith, 
for having looked upon Josephus as a miserable 
fugitive, who only indulged himself in relating to 
them idle and ridiculous fables, in order to extort 
money from his masters. Let us bless God, (we 
who have the happiness of being more enlightened 
than the Tituses, the Trajans, the Antonines, 



OF FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS. 273 

and all the senate and deputies of the Romans, 
our masters — we, who have been enlightened 
by a great and superior light,) that we can dis- 
cern between the absurd fables of Josephus, and 
the sublime truths which are revealed to us in the 
Holy Scriptures. 



274 



CHAPTER XLVI. 

OF THE FALSEHOODS OF FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS, 
CONCERNING ALEXANDER AND THE JEWS. 

Alexander had been chosen by all the Greeks 
as their common father and sovereign ;. as, for- 
merly, Agamemnon had been. In furtherance of 
his designs to avenge his country of the wrongs 
and injuries she had sustained from Asia, he at- 
tacked the Persians, and gained a decided victory 
at the battle of Issus. He, thereupon, seized 
Syria, one of the provinces of Darah, or Darius ; 
and, being desirous of securing Egypt, before he 
passed the Euphrates and Tigris, in order to de- 
prive Darius of all the ports which could send 
fleets to his assistance to execute this project, 
(which was worthy of a great commander) it be- 
came necessary for him to lay siege to Tyre, then 
under the protection of the kings of Persia. Tyre 
was the mistress of the seas, and after a siege of 
seven months, in which Alexander evinced equal 
skill and courage, he took it. The dyke which he 
boldly ventured to make on the sea-side of the 
city, is, even in the present day, considered as a 



FALSEHOODS OF JOSEPHUS, ETC. 275 

model, worthy the imitation of all generals, who 
find themselves engaged in similar undertakings. 
It was by an imitation of Alexander's plan, that 
the Duke of Parma was enabled to take Anvers, 
and the Cardinal de Richelieu, Rochelle ; if we 
may venture to compare petty exploits with great 
ones. Rollin, indeed, tells us, that Alexander's 
motive for besieging and taking Tyre, was ground- 
ed on the inj uries and insults which the inhabitants 
of that city had offered to the Jews : for, that God 
had determined to avenge his chosen people of the 
Tyrians, by the hands of Alexander. It is, how- 
ever, possible, that Alexander had other motives, 
which can be much more reasonably accounted 
for. After having reduced Tyre, he lost no time 
in securing to himself the port of Pelusium, consi- 
dered as the key of Egypt, on the side of Phoenicia. 
Therefore, Alexander, after a forced march, in or- 
der to take Gaza by surprise, went from Gaza to 
Pelusium in seven days. This is the relation 
which is faithfully reported to us from Alexander's 
own diary by Arrian, Quintus Curtius, Diodorus, 
and even by Paulus Orosius. 

But what does Josephus, in order to exalt his 
poor depressed nation, subject to the Persians ; 
but which, with the whole of Syria, had lately 
fallen under the dominion of Alexander? He 
favours us with the following pretty little story. 
Alexander, he says, when in Macedon, had seen 
in a dream, the high priest of the Jews, named 

t 2 



276 FALSEHOODS OF JOSEPHUS, CONCERNING 

Jaddus, (supposing that there ever was a Jewish 
priest with a name ending in us,) and that this 
priest had encouraged him to undertake his expe- 
dition against the Persians, assuring him of suc- 
cess ; and that this was, in fact, the ground-work 
of Alexander's attack on Asia. To give some sort 
of colour to this romantic tale, he leads Alexander, 
after the siege of Tyre, five or six days' journey out 
of his w T ay, that he may gratify his desire of pay- 
ing a visit to Jerusalem. As the high priest, 
Jaddus, had formerly appeared to Alexander in a 
dream ; Jaddus also, received orders from God, in 
a dream, to go out and salute this great king. He 
obeys ; and, clothing himself in his pontifical robes, 
followed by the Levites in their surplices, he goes 
forth in grand procession to meet Alexander. As 
soon as this monarch had fixed his eyes on Jaddus, 
he immediately recognized in him, the very same 
individual who had appeared to him in a dream, 
about seven or eight years before, inviting him to 
come over and make a conquest of Persia ; and he 
turns round, and confesses the fact, to Parmenio, 
one of his attendants. The high priest, Jaddus, 
had, on his head, the pontifical cap, adorned with 
a gold plate, on which was engraved a Hebrew 
word ; Alexander, (who, without doubt, under- 
stood Hebrew perfectly well,) immediately recog- 
nized in this word the name Jehovah, and he most 
humbly prostrated himself before it ; well knowing 
that God could have no other name than this. 



ALEXANDER AND THE JEWS. 277 

Hereupon, Jaddus shews Alexander the prophecies 
of the Hebrew prophets, in which was clearly 
foretold the conquest of Persia, by a prince of 
Grecia, which, of course, could mean no other 
than Alexander himself. These prophecies could 
not be supposed to have been made after the event 
itself. Jaddus flatters Alexander with the idea 
that God had made choice of him, to destroy all 
hopes of his chosen people ever inheriting the 
promised land ; in the same way that Nabuchodo- 
nozor and Cyrus, who had each successively pos- 
sessed " The Land of Promise," had been chosen 
by God for the same purpose. This absurd story 
of the romancist Josephus, ought not, we think, 
to have been copied by Rollin, as if it had been 
attested by one of the holy writers. 

But it is in this way that ancient history has 
been written, and the example is but too frequently 
followed by modern historians. 



278 



CHAPTER XLVII. 

OF POPULAR ERRORS, AND PREJUDICES, WHICH 
THE SACRED WRITERS HAVE CONDESCENDED 
TO SANCTION BY THEIR ADMISSION OR 
EXAMPLE. 

The Scriptures, or Holy Writings, were no doubt 
intended to perfect us in morality, and not to 
make natural philosophers of us. 

In ancient times the serpent was looked upon 
as the most cunning and skilful of all animals. 
The author of the Pentateuch, therefore, does well, 
in saying that the serpent was sufficiently adroit 
and cunning to deceive Eve. Speech was some- 
times attributed to animals ; therefore the sacred 
writers represent the serpent and Balaam's ass as 
making very fine discourses. Many Jews, as well 
as some of our Christian doctors, have considered 
this story to be merely an allegory. But whether 
emblematic, or real, it is equally respectable. 
The stars were considered as so many points or 
fixed lights in the firmament ; the Divine Author, 
most complaisantly, conforms himself to the com- 



OF POPULAR ERORRS, AND PREJUDICES. 279 

mon opinion, and represents the moon as ruling 
over the stars and the night. 

The general opinion was, that the heavens were 
solid ; they were denominated, in Hebrew, Ra- 
kiahy a word which may be denned as " A Plate 
of Metal" or a large and firm body, which we 
translate — Firmament. It was supposed to hold, 
or contain, those waters, which were imagined to 
escape by various openings and passages in the 
heavens, and with which we are blessed in the 
form of rain. Accordingly, we find the sacred 
historian adopting this principle of natural phi- 
losophy. 

The Indians, the Chaldeans, and the Persians, 
had an idea that God had formed the world at six 
different periods. So, the author of the book of 
Genesis, in order not to shock the prejudices of 
the Jews, represents the Deity as creating the 
world in six days : although a word, and a moment, 
had been quite sufficient for his Almighty Power. 

The delightful shades of a garden were the 
chief source of comfort and happiness, in a country 
dried up, and burnt, by the heat of the sun ; there- 
fore the Divine Author places the first man in a 
garden. 

In those days, there was not the least idea of a 
Being purely immaterial : God is continually re- 
presented as a man; he walks in the garden at 
noon, — he speaks, — and is spoken to, as a man. 

The word soul (ruah) signifies breath, or life. 



280 OF POPULAR ERRORS, 

In the Pentateuch we always find it used in that 
sense, — as a breath, — as life. 

It was believed that there were nations of 
giants ; — accordingly, we find them represented 
in the book of Genesis, as the children of angels 
by the daughters of men. 

Brutes were imagined to possess some kind of 
reason ; and so, after the deluge, we find that God 
is said to have deigned to make an alliance, or 
covenant, with brutes, as well as men. 

No one knew what the rainbow was, nor the 
cause thereof; it was considered as a supernatural 
production ; and, as such, Homer always speaks 
of it. The Scriptures term it the ark, or bow, of 
God : — the token of the covenant between God 
and every living creature. 

Among the numerous errors into which man- 
kind had fallen, was one, that you could have 
animals of any colour you pleased, by presenting 
this colour to the view of the mother, at the time 
of conception. It will be remembered, that Jacob 
is said to have obtained speckled lambs, by re- 
sorting to this artifice. 

| The people of antiquity made use of charms 
to remedy the bites of serpents ; and when the 
wound was not mortal, or the poison had been 
effectually sucked out by one of those mounte- 
banks, denominated Psilles ; — or, that, in fact, 
a certain form and species of writing had been 
successfully applied to it ; - — then, and in such 



AND PREJUDICES. 281 

case, the charms had all the credit of having ef- 
fected the cure. Moses raised up a brazen ser- 
pent, the sight of which, is said to have healed 
all those, whom the real serpents had bitten. 
Thus God changed a popular error into a novel 
truth. 

One of the most ancient errors was, the opinion 
that bees could be generated from a putrid car- 
case. This idea was, very probably, founded on 
the daily experience of observing flies and worms 
resort to, and quickly cover, the dead bodies of 
animals. From this experience (which was an 
ocular deception), the ancients conceived that 
corruption was the principle of generation. Since 
it was believed that a dead body produced flies, 
they fancied that the most certain method of pro- 
curing bees, would be, to prepare the bleeding- 
skins of animals in a manner prescribed, in order 
to effect this metamorphosis. They did not, for 
a moment, reflect, that bees have the greatest 
aversion for all flesh that is in the least tainted 
or corrupt ; and the instinctive feeling, with them, 
seems to be, most carefully to avoid it. We need 
not therefore be surprised that this method of 
procuring bees did not succeed ; but they, never- 
less, believed, that the failure was to be attributed 
to some defect in their preparations, Virgil, in 
the 4th canto of his Georgicks, says, that this 
operation was successfully attempted by Aristaeus ; 
but he also adds that it was a miracle, — mirabile 
monstrum. 



282 OF POPULAR ERRORS, 

It is by a refinement of this ancient prejudice, 
that it is related of Sampson, that he found a 
swarm of bees in the mouth of a lion, which he 
had torn in pieces with his hands. 

There also existed a vulgar opinion that the 
aspic (or adder) stopped her ears, in order not to 
hear the voice of the enchanters. The Holy- 
Psalmist countenances this error by saying in the 
58th Psalm — " Like the deaf adder that stoppeth 
" her ears ; which refuseth to hear the voice of the 
** charmer, charm he never so wisely." 

A ridiculous and vulgar opinion pervaded an- 
tiquity, that women, at the time of their periodical 
sickness, caused wine and milk to turn, or spoil ; 
prevented the coagulation of butter ; and also 
caused the death of the young pigeons in the 
pigeon-house. This opinion still exists among 
the lower order of people ; who believe in it, as 
well as in the moon's influences. It was also 
believed that the periodical purgations of females 
was corrupt blood, and that if a man had inter- 
course with his wife at this critical period, he had 
in consequence, a leprous and maimed offspring. 
The Jews were so strongly prejudiced in favour of 
this opinion, that in the 20th chapter of Leviticus, 
we find those, who are known to have conjugal 
intercourse at the critical time alluded to, are con- 
demned to death ! 

In short, so determined was the Holy Spirit to 
conform itself to, and as we may say, countenance 



AND PREJUDICES. 283 

the popular errors and prejudices of the day, that 
we find the Saviour himself, saying that " No 
"man putteth new wine into old bottles;" and 
that before wheat, or any other grain, can shoot 
and spring up, it must rot and decay. 

St. Paul, in his endeavours to convince the 
Corinthians of the truth of the resurrection, says : 
" Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not 
" quickened, except it die." We are, however, 
well aware, at the present day, that grain neither 
rots nor dies in the earth, before it springs up ; 
for if it decayed it would not shoot at all. But 
this was the popular error of the time : and the 
Holy Spirit has deigned to draw from it, some 
very salutary and useful inferences. This is what 
St. Jerome calls speaking by economy. 

All those persons who were afflicted with con- 
vulsive disorders were supposed to be possessed 
of the devil, as soon as the doctrine of devils was 
admitted. Epilepsy, among the Romans and the 
Greeks, was denominated " The Holy Sickness." 
Melancholy, accompanied with a species of rage, 
or madness, was also a disorder, the cause of 
which was unknown ; those who were afflicted 
with it, wandered about among the tombs in the 
night, howling and making a noise. They were 
called by the Greeks, Demoniacks (Kylantropes). 
The Scriptures admit the existence of demoniacks, 
wandering among the tombs. 

The guilty, among the Greeks, were frequently 



284 OF POPULAR ERRORS, 

tormented by furies. They had reduced Orestes 
to such despair, that, in a fit of rage, he bit off 
one of his fingers. These furies also haunted 
Alcmaeon, Eteocles, and Polynices. The Hel- 
lenist Jews, who had become pretty well ac- 
quainted with all the Greek opinions, also ad- 
mitted the existence of all kinds of furies, and 
unclean spirits ; — of devils, who were the tor- 
mentors of men. The Sadducees would not, in- 
deed, admit the doctrine, or existence, of devils ; 
but the Pharisees did, a short time before the 
reign of Herod. At that time the Jews had 
among them, exorcists, whose business it was, 
to cast out devils : they made use of a certain 
root, which they put under the nose of those 
possessed, and repeated some kind of formula, 
which they pretended to have been extracted 
from a book of Solomon's. In short, they were 
so far in possession of the power of casting out 
devils, that our Saviour himself, when accused 
(according to St. Matthew) of casting out devils 
through Beelzebub, the prince of the devils, re- 
plies by allowing that they had the power of doing 
the same, and then asks them, if it is by Beelzebub 
that they triumph over evil spirits ? 

Truly, if these same Jews who put Jesus to 
death, had possessed the power of working such 
miracles ; if, in fact, the Pharisees did cast out 
devils, they performed similar prodigies to our 
Saviour himself; they possessed the gift of doing 



AND PREJUDICES. 285 

that which was said to have been communicated 
by Jesus to his disciples. And if, in reality, they 
did not possess this power, Jesus countenanced 
this popular error, by deigning to allow, that his 
implacable enemies, whom he called a race of 
vipers, had the gift of miracles, and power over 
evil spirits. It is true that neither Jews, nor 
Christians, possess this power at the present day ; 
however common it might formerly have been. 
There are still exorcists, and conjurors, but we 
hear nothing of any devils, or of any persons pos- 
sessed of the devil : so much does the course of 
things change with time ! It was, perhaps, proper, 
In the order and course of events, that there should 
have been devils at that time, and that there should 
be none now. Those prodigies which were re- 
quisite and necessary to the erection of a divine 
edifice, are no longer required when the building- 
is complete. All things have undergone a change : 
Virtue alone is immutable : she is like the light 
of the sun, which contains hardly any known 
matter, and which is always pure, always immu- 
table, when all the elements are in confusion. We 
have only to open our eyes to bless its Author ! 



286 



CHAPTER XLVIII. 

OF ANGELS, GENII, AND DEVILS, AMONG THE 
NATIONS OF ANTIQUITY, INCLUDING THE 
JEWS. 

Every thing springs from the nature of the hu- 
man mind : all great and powerful men, — magis- 
trates, and princes, had their messengers : it was 
therefore considered very probable, that the gods 
had their messengers also. The Chaldeans and 
Persians appear to be the first, who have referred 
to, or spoken any thing of, angels. The Parsis 
(fire worshippers), who still exist, communicated 
to the author * of the " Religion of the Ancient 
Parsis" the names of the angels acknowledged by 
the first, or early Persians. There are one hun- 
dred and nineteen of them, but we find neither 
Gabriel nor Raphael among them. The two 
latter were not adopted by the Persians till a long 
time after. In fact, the words are Chaldean, and 
were not known to the Jews until the time of 
their captivity : for, before the history of Tobit, 

* Hide, de religione veterum Persarum. 



OF ANGELS, GENII, AND DEVILS. 287 

we do not find the name of any angel, neither in 
the Pentateuch, nor any of the Hebrew books. 

The Persians, in their ancient catalogue, or list, 
given in the fore-part of the Sadder, only reckon- 
ed up twelve devils ; and Ariman was the first. 
It was certainly matter for great consolation, to 
know, that the genii, benefactors and friends of 
men, were much more numerous than the demons, 
their enemies. 

We do not discover that this doctrine was ever 
admitted, or adopted, by the Egyptians. The 
Greeks, instead of tutelar genii, had their se- 
condary divinities, — heroes and demi-gods. In- 
stead of devils they had Ate, Erinnys, and the 
Eumenides. We believe Plato is the first who 
speaks of a good and evil genius, which re- 
spectively presided over all the actions of mortals. 
After him, the Greeks and the Romans pretended 
to have each two genii; and the bad, or evil ge- 
nius, seems to have had much more business and 
employment, and to have been much more suc- 
cessful, than his antagonist. 

When the Jews had, at last, given names to 
their celestial army, they divided them into ten 
classes : — The saints ; the swift, or rapid ; the 
strong ; the naming, or fiery ; the sparkling ; the 
deputies, or delegates ; princes ; the sons of 
princes ; the imaginary ; and the animated. But 
this hierarchy is only to be found in the Talmud, 



288 OF ANGELS, GENII, AND DEVILS. 

and the Targum, and not in any of the Canonical 
Hebrew books. 

These angels always appeared in a human form, 
and it is thus we describe and paint them in the 
present day ; not forgetting to furnish them each 
with a pair of wings. The angels which appeared 
to Abraham and Lot, ate and drank with those 
patriarchs ; and the furious and brutal conduct 
of the inhabitants of Sodom proves but too strongly, 
that the angels visiting Lot, had a body. It 
would, in fact, be very difficult to comprehend, 
how angels could have conversed, or held any kind 
of communication with men, if they had assumed 
any other form than the human. 

The Jews had no other ideas, than the pre- 
ceding, even of God himself. They represent 
him as addressing Adam and Eve in the language 
of man. He speaks even to the serpent. He 
walks in the garden of Edeiiifat noon.) He deigns 
to hold converse with Abraham, — with the Pa- 
triarchs, and with Moses. Some commentators 
have even gone so far, as to express their belief, 
that these words, in Genesis — " Let us make 
man in our image, — after our likeness," may be 
so understood, to the letter ; — and that the most 
perfect of beings on earth, was a feeble resem- 
blance of the form, or image, of his Creator. It is 
very properly added, that this idea should rouse 
the exertions of men, and operate as an induce- 
ment with them, never to degenerate. 



OF ANGELS, GENII, AND DEVILS. 289 

Although the fall of angels, transformed into 
demons and devils, be the foundation of both the 
Jewish and the Christian religions, not a word is 
said upon the subject, either in the Book of Ge- 
nesis, nor in the Book of the Law, nor in any 
canonical book. In the Book of Genesis it is 
expressly said, that a serpent spoke to Eve, and 
seduced her. It is, at the same time, particularly 
remarked, that the serpent was the most skilful 
and cunning of all animals : and we have already 
observed, that this opinion of the serpent was 
generally entertained by all nations. The Book 
of Genesis tells us also, in positive terms, that the 
hatred which all men have for the serpent, arises 
from the evil done by it to the human race ; and 
that it is from this time we must date the enmity 
existing between this animal and man. Thence, 
he seeks to bite us, — and we, to destroy him : 
and, in fine, the serpent, for his wicked and bad 
conduct, was condemned to creep on his belly, 
and to eat the dust of the ground. It is now, 
however, well ascertained, that the serpent does 
not eat, or feed, upon the earth ; but all antiquity 
believed that to be the case. 

It seems, to our curiosity, that from the pre- 
ceding relation, we are to infer, that this serpent 
was one of the fallen angels, who, in this shape, 
came to exercise his vengeance upon, and to cor- 
rupt the works of God. Nevertheless, there is no 
passage in the Pentateuch, from which such an 



290 OF ANGELS, GENII, AND DEVILS. 

inference can be drawn ; if we consult only our 
own feeble ideas upon the subject. 

In the Book of Job, Satan is represented as the 
master, or prince, of this world, subject to God. 
But what individual, how little soever versed in 
antiquity, who does not know that the word Satan, 
is Chaldean ; and that this Satan was the Ariman 
of the Persians, adopted by the Chaldeans ; the 
evil principle predominating over men ? Job, it 
is said, was an Arabian shepherd, living on the 
confines of Persia. We have already remarked, 
that the retention of several Arabick words, in the 
Hebrew translation of this ancient allegory, shews 
clearly that the book was originally written by 
the Arabs. Flavius Josephus, who does not in- 
clude it in the Hebrew canonical books, removes 
every doubt upon that subject. 

Demons and devils thrust out from Heaven, and 
precipitated to the centre of our world here below ; 
and suffered to escape from their prison, to tempt 
men, and lead them into evil, have been looked 
upon, for ages, as the authors of our damnation. 
But once more, we assert, that there is not the 
least foundation for this opinion in the Old Testa- 
ment. The truth, if truth it be, rests entirely upon 
tradition. 

Some commentators have told us that this pas- 
sage (in the 14th chapter of Isaiah), " How art 
" thou fallen from Heaven, O Lucifer, son of the 
morning !" designates the fall of the angels, and 



OF ANGELS, GENII, AND DEVILS. 291 

that it was Lucifer who disguised himself as a 
serpent, and tempted Adam and Eve to eat the 
forbidden fruit. 

In point of fact, however, so singular an allegory 
may, very properly, be compared to those enig- 
mas, formerly presented for solution, to the young 
students of our colleges. For instance, a picture 
was exhibited, representing an old man, and a 
young girl. One will say — it is winter and 
spring ; another, it is fire and snow ; another, it is 
a thorn and a rose ; and another, it is strength and 
weakness. He who discovered the sense, in a 
degree the most remote from the subject repre- 
sented, and gave it the mojt extraordinary appli- 
cation, always gained the prize. 

It is precisely the same with this singular applica- 
tion, or comparison, of the star of the morning to 
the devil. Isaiah, in his 14th chapter, insultingly 
triumphing at the death of the king of Babylon, 
exclaims, " How hath the oppressor ceased ! the 
" golden city ceased ! They break forth into sing- 
" ing. Yea, the fir-trees rejoice at thee, and the 
" cedars of Lebanon, saying, Since thou art laid 
" down, no feller is come up against us. Thy 
" pomp is brought down to the grave, and the 
" noise of thy viols : the worm is spread under 
',' thee, and the worms cover thee. How art thou 
" fallen from heaven, O Helel / (O Lucifer,) son of 
"the morning! how art thou cut down to the 
'f ground, which didst weaken the nations!" — 

u 2 



292 OF ANGELS, GENU, AND DEVILS. 

This word Helel was rendered in Latin, Lucifer; 
and the same name has been since given to the 
devil, though one would imagine there could be 
no great affinity between the devil and the star 
of the morning. It was supposed that this devil, 
being a star fallen from Heaven, was an angel 
who had made war against God : he could not 
make, or carry on, war by himself; he must there- 
fore have had some companions. The fable of the 
giants rising in arms against the gods, was spread 
among all nations, and is, according to several of 
our learned commentators, a profane imitation of 
the tradition handed down to us, of the angels 
rising in rebellion against their master. This idea 
was further strengthened by the Epistle of Saint 
Jude, where it is said, " And the angels which 
" kept not their first estate, but left their own 
" habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains 
" under darkness unto the judgment of the great 
" day." — " Woe unto them! for they have gone 
" in the way of Cain . . . And Enoch also, the 
" seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, 
" Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousand of 
" his saints," &c. 

It was thence imagined that Enoch had left 
some account in writing of the fall of the angels. 
But there are two very important things to be ob- 
served here : — First, Enoch did not write, nor did 
Seth, although the Jews attributed books to both 
of them ; and the pretended book of Enoch, cited 



OF ANGELS, GENII, AND DEVILS. 293 

by St. Jude, was discovered to have been forged 
by some Jew. Secondly, even in this book of the 
sham Enoch, not a word is said of the rebellion 
and fall of the angels, before the creation of man. 
This is, word for word, what is said in his 
Egregori : — 

" The number of men having prodigiously mul- 
tiplied and increased, they had very beautiful 
daughters born unto them : the angels, the 
watchers (Egregori), became exceedingly amo- 
rous of them, and were led into many errors in 
consequence. They spake one to another, say- 
ing, ' Let us take unto ourselves wives from 
among the daughters of the men of the earth.' 
Semiaxas, their prince, told them that he feared 
they durst not carry their intentions into effect, 
and that he alone should be subjected to all the 
blame resulting from the commission of such a 
crime. They, with one voice, replied, l Let us 
make an oath to execute our designs, and to 
devote ourselves to the Anathema, in case of 
failure.' They thereupon bound themselves by 
oaths and imprecations. There were two hun- 
dred of them ; who set out together, in the time 
of Jared, and came down upon Mount Her- 
monim, in fulfilment of their oath. These are 
names of the principal ones : — Semiaxas, Atar- 
culph, Araciel, Chobabiel Hosampsich, Zaciel 
Parmar, Thausael, Samiel, Tiril, Sumiel." 
" They, in conjunction with those who accom- 






294 OF ANGELS, GENII, AND DEVILS. 

" panied them, took unto themselves wives, in the 
" year 1170 of the creation of the world. From 
" this commerce were born three different races of 
" men, the giants of Naphilim," &c. 

It will be perceived that the author of this frag- 
ment writes in a style suitable to the earliest 
periods : with the same simplicity, and ingenuous- 
ness of manner. He does not fail to mention the 
names of the different personages concerned ; he 
does not forget to furnish us with dates ; no re- 
flexions; no maxims. It is the ancient oriental 
style. 

It is easy to see that the above narration has its 
origin in the\6th chapter of Genesis, where we 
find written as follows. " There were giants in 
" the earth in those days ; and also after that, 
" when the sons of God came in unto the daugh- 
" ters of men, and they bare children to them ; 
" the same became mighty men, which were of 
" old, men of renown." 

There is no mention made of evil spirits and 
the devil, except in the allegory of Job, of which 
we have already spoken, (as not being a Jewish 
book) and in the book, or adventures of Tobit. The 
devil Asmodeus, or Shammadey, who strangled 
the first seven husbands of Sara, or Sarah, and 
whom Raphael is said to have dislodged, or turned 
out of his abode, by the smoke of a pike's liver, 
was not a Jewish, but a Persian devil. Raphael 
went and enchained him in Upper Egypt ; but it 



OF ANGELS, GENII, AND DEVILS. 295 

is certain that the Jews, having no hell, could have 
no devils. They began very late to believe in the 
immortality of the soul, and a hell, and that was 
when the sect of the Pharisees prevailed. They, 
therefore, could never have entertained any such 
ideas, as that the serpent which tempted Eve was 
a devil, or one of the fallen angels. This stone, 
which serves for the foundation of the whole 
building, was laid the last ! Let it be understood 
that we have not the less respect for the history 
of the fallen angels, (now devils,) but that we can- 
not discover whence it has originated. 

Beelzebub, Belphegor, and Astaroth (or Ash- 
taroth) were denominated devils; but these, in 
fact, were the ancient gods of Syria. Belphegor 
was the god of marriage ; Beelzebub, Belzebuth, 
or Bel-se-buth, signified " the Lord who defends 
" us from insects." The king Okosias, (called in 
the Bible, Ahaziah,) even sent to consult him as a 
god, to enquire if he should recover of his sick- 
ness ; and Elijah, indignant at his conduct, re- 
proached him for it in these words. " Is it be- 
" cause there is no God in Israel, that ye go to 
" enquire of Baalzebub, the God of Ekron." 

Ashtaroth, or Astaroth, was the moon, and 
surely the moon was not transformed into a devil. 

Again, the apostle Jude says that " the devil 
" quarrelled with Michael the archangel, about 
" the body of Moses." But we find nothing of 
the sort in the Jewish canons. This dispute of 



296 OF ANGELS, GENII, AND DEVILS. 

Michael with the devil, is only to be met with in 
an apocryphal book entitled, " Analipses of 
" Moses," cited by Origen, in his third book of 
Principles. 

It is therefore unquestionable that the Jews re- 
cognized no devils, until about the time of the 
Babylonish captivity. They acquired their first 
knowledge of them from the Persians, who de- 
rived it from Zoroaster. 

Nothing but ignorance, fanaticism, or bad faith, 
can pretend to deny all these plain and simple 
truths ; and we may very properly add, that reli- 
gion need not be alarmed at the consequences. 
God has certainly permitted that the belief of a 
good and evil genius, the immortality of the soul, 
and of eternal rewards and punishments, should 
be established among more than twenty nations of 
antiquity, before it reached the Jewish people. 
Our holy religion has consecrated this doctrine. 
It has established what other nations had merely 
a glimpse of; and what was but an opinion among 
the ancients, is become by revelation a divine 
truth. 



297 



CHAPTER XLIX. 

AN INQUIRY AS TO WHETHER THE JEWS HAVE 
BEEN THE TEACHERS OF OTHER NATIONS, 
OR HAVE BEEN TAUGHT BY THEM. 

The sacred Books having never determined the 
point, whether the Jews were the masters or dis- 
ciples of other nations, we are at liberty to ex- 
amine the question. 

Philo, in giving us an account of his mission to 
Caligula, begins by saying that Israel is a Chal- 
dean word, and that it is a name given by the 
Chaldeans to the just, consecrated to God. — In 
their language, the word Israel means Seeing God. 
— It is then proved, by this single fact, that the 
Jews could not have called Jacob, Israel, nor 
could they have taken the name of Israelites, but 
until after they had acquired some knowledge of 
the Chaldean tongue ; and this could only have 
happened when they were slaves, or captives, in 
Chaldea. For is it likely, — is there the shadow 
of a possibility, — that wandering in the deserts of 
Arabia Petrsea, they could at that time have ac- 
quired any knowledge of the Chaldean ? 



298 AN INQUIRY CONCERNING 

Flavius Josephus in his reply to Apion, Lysim- 
achus, and Molon, (book ii. chap. 5.) confesses, in 
plain terms, " that it was the Egyptians from 
" whom other nations acquired the rite of circum- 
" cision, as Herodotus has testified." — In fact, is 
it, in the least, probable, that an ancient and pow- 
erful nation, like the Egyptians, could have taken 
such a custom from a petty people, held by them 
in abhorrence ; and who, by their own confession, 
were not circumcised until the time of Joshuah ? 

The sacred Books themselves inform us, that 
Moses had been instructed in all the learning of 
the Egyptians, but they make no mention what- 
ever of the Egyptians having acquired any kind of 
learning or information from the Jews. — When 
Solomon was about to build his temple, he had re- 
course to Hiram, the king of Tyre, for artisans and 
workmen, of every description. — It is even said 
that he gave Hiram twenty cities, in order to ob- 
tain these workmen, and cedar- trees, fir-trees, &c. 
It was certainly paying rather a high price for such 
an indulgence, and the contract is a singular one ; 
but we do not find that the Tyrians ever availed 
themselves of the assistance of any of the Jewish 
artists ! 

The same Josephus, of whom we have spoken, 
acknowledges that his nation (which, let it be re- 
membered, he strives to exalt) had no kind of 
commerce, or intercourse, with other nations ; and 
that they were, in particular, unknown to the 



THE JEWS. 299 

Greeks, who well knew both the Scythians and 
the Tartars. — •" Need we be surprised" (he adds, 
in book i. chap. 5.) " that our nation, so far distant 
" from the sea, and having no pretensions to writ- 
** ing, or publishing works of any kind, should 
" have been so little known ?" 

When this same Josephus relates, with his usual 
exaggeration, the honorable (but at the same time 
incredible) manner of the purchase made by the 
king Ptolemy Philadelphus of a Greek transla- 
tion of the Jewish laws, made by the Hebrews in 
the city of Alexandria, he adds, that Demetrius 
Phalereus, who had caused this translation to be 
made for the king's library, demanded of one of 
the translators, " how it happened, that no his- 
" torian, or poet whatever, of any other nation, 
" had spoken of, or made any allusion to, the Jew- 
" ish laws." — To which, according to Josephus, 
the translator replied, — "As these laws are all 
" divine, no person has dared to undertake writing 
" or speaking any thing concerning them ; and 
" those who have presumed to do any such thing 
" have been severely punished for it by God. — 
" Theopompus having cited a portion of them in 
" his history, lost his senses for the space of thirty 
" days ; but having learnt in a dream that he had 
" become insane, in consequence of penetrating 
" into things divine, and communicating them to 
" the profane,* he appeased the anger of God by 
" his prayers, and was restored to his senses." 
* Josephus, b. xii. c. 2. 



300 AN INQUIRY, ETC. 

f. Theodectes, a Greek poet, having put in a 
" tragedy which he had composed, sundry pas- 
f sages extracted from our sacred books, became, 
" (almost immediately,) blind ; and only recovered 
" his sight on a penitent acknowledgment of his 
" fault." 

These two stories, so unworthy of the page of 
history, and so degrading to any man possessed of 
common sense, contradict, in reality, the praises 
which he bestows upon the Greek translation of 
the Jewish books, to which we have alluded ; for 
if it were a crime to translate a few passages only 
of these books, it must have been a much greater 
crime, we should imagine, to translate the whole, 
and giving to the whole of the Greeks an oppor- 
tunity of becoming acquainted with them. Jose- 
phus, however, by his relation of these two little 
stories, establishes the fact, that the Greeks had 
never previously known any thing of the Jewish 
books. 

On the contrary, from the time that the He- 
brews became somewhat settled in Alexandria, 
they applied themselves to the acquisition of 
Greek, and were called Hellenist Jews. It is, 
then, unquestionable, that the Jews, from the time 
of Alexander, learnt many things of the Greeks, 
(Whose language had become that of the whole of 
Asia Minor, and part of Egypt), and that the 
Greeks could learn nothing from the Hebrews. 



301 



CHAPTER L. 

OF THE ROMANS THE COMMENCEMENT OF 

THEIR EMPIRE THEIR RELIGION AND TO- 
LERATION. 

The Romans cannot be classed with the primitive 
nations. — They are of too modern date. The first 
existence of Rome can only be taken at some- 
where about seven hundred and fifty years before 
our vulgar era. When they became possessed of 
laws, and religious rites and ceremonies, they were 
indebted for them to the Etruscans and the Greeks. 
The Etruscans instructed them in the science of 
auspices and auguries. This superstition, however, 
was founded on physical observations,- — on the 
flight and passage of birds; — from which were 
augured the changes and variations of the atmo- 
sphere. It would appear, that almost every su- 
perstition has its origin in some natural occurrence ; 
and that many errors have arisen from an abuse 
and misconception of the truth. 

The Greeks furnished the Romans with the law 
of the twelve tables. — Now, a people who seeks 
its laws and its gods from among other nations, 



302 OF THE ROMANS. 

can be but a petty and a barbarous people ; and 
such, in fact, were the first Romans. Their ter- 
ritory, in the time of their kings and first consuls, 
was not so extensive as that of Ragusa. We do 
not suppose that the kings here spoken of would 
bear a comparison with Cyrus and his successors ! 
The chief of a petty nation of robbers and plun- 
derers can never become a despot. The spoils were 
considered as common property, and divided as 
such ; and each defended his liberty, as his own 
proper right. — The first kings of Rome were evi- 
dently little better than captains of buccaneers. 

If the Roman historians may be believed, this 
petty nation began its career by ravishing the 
daughters, and plundering the property, of their 
neighbours. They merited extermination, — but 
a ferocious courage, instigated by necessity, ani- 
mated them in all their enterprises, and rendered 
them finally successful. They maintained them- 
selves in a state of constant warfare with their 
neighbours; and finally, at the end of about four 
hundred years, having become more warlike than 
all other nations, they subjected them, one after 
another, to their dominion, from the extremity of 
the Adriatick Gulf to the Euphrates. 

In the midst of robbery and plunder, the love 
of their country predominated, until the time of 
Sylla. This love of country consisted in their 
bringing to the common stock, for more than 
four hundred years, whatever had been taken, 



OF THE ROMANS. 303 

or plundered, from other nations or people. 
This is the distinguishing virtue of robbers. To 
love our country, is to kill and despoil other men. 
But, in the bosom of the republick, were to be 
found, many great and noble virtues. The Ro- 
mans who had become civilized and polished by 
time, undertook the civilization of the rude and 
barbarous nations, and people, whom they had 
conquered, and at length, became the sole legis- 
lators of the western world. 

In the early days of the republicks of Greece 
they appear in a light far superior to the Romans. 
The latter sallied forth from their places of retreat 
in the Seven Mountains, with handfuls (manipli) 
of hay, serving them for ensigns and colours, with 
the view only of robbing and plundering the neigh- 
bouring towns and villages. The former, on the 
contrary, sought only to defend their liberties. 
The Romans plunder, for four or five miles around, 
the iEqui, the Volsci, and the Antii, but the Greeks 
repulse immense armies of the great king of Persia, 
and triumph over him both by sea and land. The 
conquering Greeks cultivate, and bring to perfec- 
tion, all the fine arts, of which, the Romans were 
totally ignorant, until about the time of Scipio 
Africanus. 

With respect to the religion of the Romans, we 
shall here make one or two important remark ; first, 
that they adopted or tolerated, all the gods, and 
different forms of worship, of other nations, after 



304 OF THE ROMANS. 

the example of the Greeks : secondly, that the 
groundwork of the religion of the senate and em- 
perors was laid in the belief of a Supreme Being, in 
accordance with the greater number of the philo- 
sophers and poets of Greece. 

The toleration of all religions was a law of na- 
ture, graven on the hearts of all men. For what 
right can any created being have, to compel his 
fellow-creatures to think as he does, and to exer- 
cise the same form of worship ? But when a peo- 
ple become united in society as a nation, and 
religion is made a law of the state, we are then 
bound to submit to that law. Now, the Romans, 
by their laws, adopted all the gods of the Greeks, 
who, (as we have before observed) themselves, 
had erected altars " To the unknown gods." By 
the ordinances of the twelve tables it is decreed 
" That no person shall adopt or introduce, any 
new or strange gods, without the public sanction." 
— (Separatim nemo habessit deos neve advenas nisi 
publice adscitos). This sanction was given to several 
forms of worship, and all others were tolerated. 
This association, or union, of all the divinities of the 
world, this species of divine hospitality, was es- 
teemed as a common right by all the people of an- 
tiquity ; with the exception, perhaps, of one or 
two petty nations. 

As there were no particular or arbitrary dogmas, 
so there were never any religious wars. It was 
quite enough that ambition, and a love of plunder, 



OF THE ROMANS. 305 

caused human blood to flow in torrents ; without 
calling in the aid of religion, to complete the ex- 
termination of the world ! 

It is, again, very remarkable, that among the 
Romans, no one was ever persecuted for his way 
of thinking — for his opinions. There is not a sin- 
gle instance on record, from Romulus to Domitian. 
The same may be said of the Greeks, with the so- 
litary exception of Socrates. It is also an indis- 
putable fact, that the Romans, like the Greeks, 
worshipped a God Supreme. Their Jupiter was 
the only one who was regarded as the god of 
thunder, and whom they designated as the infi- 
nitely great and good God — JDeus optimus maximus. 
Thus from Italy, to India and China, we find the 
worship of a Supreme God ; and toleration grant- 
ed by all the known nations of the earth. 

To this knowledge of a Supreme Being, and to 
this universal indulgence, (which are the declared 
fruits of cultivated reason,) were united many su- 
perstitions, the ancient offspring of erroneous and 
dawning reason. We are not ignorant of the ridi- 
cule which so justly attaches to the sacred chicks, 
and the goddesses Pertunda and Cloacina. 

It may be asked, why the vanquishers and legis- 
lators of so many nations, did not abolish these 
fooleries ? It is answered, because they were 
dear to the people, and did not hurt, or at all in- 
terfere with, the government. Scipio, Paulus 
Emilius, Cicero, Cato, and the Caesars of the day, 



306 OF THE ROMANS. 

had other business to attend to, than troubling 
themselves with the superstitions of the populace. 
When an old error has taken deep root, policy uses 
it, as a bit, which the vulgar have put into their 
own mouths, until some other superstition comes 
and supersedes it ; of which, policy will make the 
same use, as it did of the first error. 



30; 



CHAPTER LI. 

QUERIES, CONCERNING THE CONQUESTS OF THE 
ROMANS, AND OF THEIR DECLINE AND FALL. 

How did it happen that the Romans, who, at the 
beginning of their career, were not more than three 
or four thousand in number, and who, under 
Romulus, had but one city, or town, of about a 
thousand paces in circuit, subsequently became 
the greatest conquerors of the earth ? And, how 
was it, that the Jews, who boast of having left 
Egypt with an army of six hundred and thirty 
thousand men, and of journeying in the midst of 
miracles, with the God of armies (as they pretend) 
fighting for them, never made a conquest, even of 
Tyre and Sidon, situate in their immediate neigh- 
bourhood ? Nay, could never even be brought to 
make the attempt ? Why was it, also, that these 
Jews were almost always in a state of bondage 
and slavery ? They possessed all the enthusiasm 
and ferocity necessary to make them conquerors ; 
the God of armies being always at their head ; 
and yet it is those very Romans, who come from 

x 2 



308 QUERIES CONCERNING 

a country distant not less than 1800 miles from 
the Jewish territory, and make a complete con- 
quest of them, and sell them in the market as 
slaves ! 

Humanly speaking, and considering only, se- 
condary causes, is it not clear, that if the Jews, 
who aspired to the conquest of the world, have 
been almost always enslaved, it must have been 
their own fault ? And if the Romans have tri- 
umphed, and been conquerors, did they not merit 
their good fortune, by their courage, perseverance, 
and prudence ? We most humbly beg pardon of 
the Romans, for comparing them, for one moment, 
with the Jews. 

Why was it that the Romans, for upwards of 
four hundred and fifty years, could only make a 
conquest of an extent of territory of about twenty- 
five leagues ? Was it not because they were few 
in number, and had to contend, in succession, 
with only petty nations, or people, like them- 
selves ? But when, at length, they had incor- 
porated with themselves, their vanquished neigh- 
bours, they were sufficiently powerful to oppose 
Pyrrhus. 

At that time, the petty nations around them, 
having all become Romans, they formed, together, 
a people, sufficiently formidable and warlike, ef- 
fectually to destroy Carthage. 

Whence came it, that the Romans were occu- 
pied seven hundred years, in acquiring an empire, 



THE ROMANS. 309 

nearly equal in extent to that of Alexander, but 
over which he extended his conquests in about 
seven or eight years ? Was it not because the 
Romans had to contend with martial and warlike 
nations, and Alexander with those who were 
luxurious and effeminate ? 

The Roman empire was destroyed by those, 
whom historians have been pleased to call bar- 
barians. Whence did it arise? Was it not be- 
cause those barbarians were more hardy and war- 
like than the Romans, who, under Honorius and 
his successors, had greatly degenerated, and be- 
come luxurious and effeminate ? When the 
Cimbri invaded Italy in the time of Marius, the 
Romans might have foreseen, that when these 
people had no longer a Marius to contend with, 
they would return, and attempt the conquest, or 
dismemberment, of the empire. 

The weakness and effeminacy of their emperors; 
the factions of their ministers and eunuchs ; the 
hatred borne to the new religion of the empire, 
by the professors of the old ; the bloody quarrels 
to which Christianity gave rise ; the substitution 
of theological disputes for the handling of arms, 
and of effeminacy for valour; and multitudes of 
monks replacing agriculturists and soldiers ; all 
these causes united, produced the attacks of those 
same barbarians, who were unable to vanquish 
the warlike republick, but who found but little 
difficulty in overwhelming the falling empire, under 



310 QUERIES CONCERNING 

the denomination of emperors, cruel, effeminate, 
and superstitious. 

When the Goths, the Heruli, the Vandals, and 
the Huns, inundated the Roman empire, what 
steps were taken by the two emperors to with- 
stand their attacks, and resist the torrent of in- 
vasion? The difference between Omoosios and 
Omousios, excited disputes and troubles in the 
East and West, and theological persecutions com- 
pleted the ruin of every thing. Nestorius, the 
patriarch of Constantinople, who at first stood 
high in the opinion of the emperor Theodosius the 
Second, obtained from that prince, permission to 
persecute all who considered it necessary to re- 
baptise apostate, but repentant, Christians ; them 
who believed it proper to celebrate the passover 
on the 14th of the moon of March ; and also 
them who did not plunge, or dip, three times, 
all those who came to be baptised. In fact, they 
plagued and tormented the Christians, as much 
as they, in their turn, were plagued and tormented 
by them. Nestorius wished the Holy Virgin to 
be called Antropotokos, but his enemies insisted 
that it should be Theotokos, and they were no 
doubt in the right, as the council of Ephesus de- 
cided it in their favour. Hence arose the most 
violent persecutions and quarrels ; and these, un- 
fortunately, occupied the attention of all minds. 
But whilst they were disputing, the barbarians 



THE ROMANS. 311 

seized and divided among themselves, both Europe 
and Africa. 

A question here arises, why Alaric, who, at the 
beginning of the fifth century, marched to the 
banks of the Danube, towards Rome, did not begin 
by attacking Constantinople, being then master of 
Thrace ? Why did he run the risk of being shut 
up between the empires of the East and West ? 
Was it consistent, or natural, for him to wish to 
cross the Alps and the Apennines, whilst Con- 
stantinople, in a state of terror and alarm, pre- 
sented to him an easy conquest ? The historians 
of that time, about as badly informed as the people 
were governed, do not unravel this mystery for 
us : but it is not of very difficult solution. Alaric 
had been a general in the army of Theodosius the 
first (a violent, imprudent, and superstitious 
prince), who lost the empire by confiding its de- 
fence to the Goths. By their assistance he van- 
quished and overcame his competitor, Eugenius ; 
and taught the Goths how to conquer for them- 
selves. Theodosius, therefore, kept both Alaric 
and the Goths in pay. And this pay became a 
kind of tribute, when Arcadius, the son of Theo- 
dosius, sat on the throne of the East. Alaric 
therefore spared his tributary, to go and fall upon 
Honorius and Rome. 

Honorius had chosen for his general the cele- 
brated Stilicho, the only man capable of defending 
Italy, and who had already arrested the progress 



312 QUERIES CONCERNING 

of the barbarians. His fidelity, however, being 
subjected to the most unfounded suspicions of Ho- 
norius, that prince, in a fatal moment, had him 
beheaded ; without process, or form of trial, of any 
kind. Honorius found it much more easy to chop 
off the head of his defender, Stilicho, than to con- 
tend with Alaric. That unworthy emperor retired, 
in the most dastardly manner, to Ravenna, and 
left Alaric, (who, though termed a barbarian, was 
superior to him in every thing,) to lay siege to 
Rome : — and the former mistress of the world re- 
deemed herself from pillage by agreeing to pay 
five thousand pounds weight of gold, thirty thou- 
sand pounds of silver, four thousand robes of silk, 
three thousand robes of purple, and three thousand 
pounds weight of spices. — The produce of India 
served for the ransom of Rome. 

Honorius would not adhere to the treaty, but 
made some little show of levying troops ; these, 
however, Alaric soon exterminated, and entered 
Rome in triumph in the year 409, where a Goth 
created an emperor, who became his first subject ! 
In the year following, being deceived by Honorius, 
Alaric punished him for his treachery, by com- 
pletely sacking and plundering Rome. The em- 
pire of the West being then rent and torn in pieces, 
the people of the North rushed in on all sides, and 
the emperors of the East only preserved themselves 
from destruction, for a time, by becoming tribu- 
tary to their enemies. Theodosius the Second 



THE ROMANS. 313 

was so to Attila. — Thus Italy, Gaul, Spain, and 
Africa fell a prey to whatever nation had. strength 
and enterprise sufficient to penetrate into them. — 
Here we see the fruits of the strained and unnatu- 
ral policy of Constantine, in transferring the seat 
of the Roman empire to Thrace. 

Is there not a destiny visibly attending the rise 
and fall of states and empires ? What would Au- 
gustus have said, if it had been predicted to him 
that the Capitol would, one day, be in possession 
of a priest ? and the priest too, of a religion built on 
the foundation of the Jewish ? Would he not have 
expressed his amazement at such a prediction, and 
declared its fulfilment impossible? How did it 
happen, that this priest made so easy a prey of the 
city of the renowned Scipios and Caesars ? It was 
because it was in a state of anarchy and confusion, 
and he therefore became master of it, almost with- 
out an effort ; in the same way that the bishops of 
Germany, about the thirteenth century, became 
the sovereigns of those of whom they had been the 
pastors. 

Every event brings with it others which were 
altogether unforeseen and unexpected. Romulus 
did not believe that Rome would ever have been 
subject to the Goths, or to 'bishops or priests of 
any kind. Alexander had not the least idea that 
ever Alexandria would belong to the Turks, nor 
did Constantine build Constantinople for Mahomet 
the Second. 



314 



CHAPTER LII. 

OF THE FIRST PEOPLE WHO WROTE HISTORY, 
AND OF THE FABULOUS RELATIONS OF THE 
FIRST HISTORIANS. 

It is incontestable that the most ancient annals in 
the world are those of China. These annals suc- 
ceed each other, in an uninterrupted succession, 
with a clear and simple relation of every event, and 
the circumstances attending it, — wise, modest, 
without any mixture of the marvellous, and sup- 
ported by astronomical observations, for upwards 
of 4152 years. They even go back several centu- 
ries beyond that, without, in fact, possessing pre- 
cise dates; yet, with such strong probability of 
correctness in what they relate, as to leave but 
little doubt of its truth. It is very probable that 
other powerful and ancient nations of antiquity, 
such as the Indians, the Chaldeans, the Syrians, 
and the Egyptians, each having large and populous 
cities, had also annals. 

A people without any fixed settlement, wander- 
ing about from country to country, must evidently 
have been among the last to attempt to write their 
history ; because they have not the means or 



FIRST WRITERS OF HISTORY, ETC. 315 

power of having archives and preserving them, 
which other nations have ; and also because their 
wants and laws are few, and they have but few 
events or occurrences of consequence to narrate ; 
being occupied, principally, in obtaining a preca- 
rious subsistence. Oral tradition therefore suffices 
them. A little town, or village, never thought of 
writing its history ; a wandering people, or nation, 
still less ; and a single city but very rarely. 
V The history of any nation can never be written 
till very late ; till a very considerable time after its 
foundation, or establishment. Historians generally 
commence by reciting some very brief abstracts of 
registers, which have been preserved, (as much as 
they could be so) in some temple, or citadel. An 
unfortunate war often destroys these annals, and 
they must be begun over again, perhaps for the 
twentieth time ; like the ants, in the re-establish- 
ment of their habitation, which has been so uncere- 
moniously trampled upon and destroyed. It is 
not, therefore, till the termination of several cen- 
turies, that a history somewhat in detail is brought 
to succeed those rude and shapeless records : and 
then this first history is generally intermixed with 
the sham marvellous and wonderful, which serves 
to fill up the vacancy occasioned by the lack of 
true and genuine matter. Thus the Greeks had 
not their Herodotus until the 80th Olympiad ; 
which is more than a thousand years after the first 
epoch recorded on the marbles of Paros. The 



316 FIRST WRITERS OF HISTORY, ETC. 

most ancient historian of the Romans, Fabius 
Pic tor, did not write until the time of the second 
war against Carthage, which was about five hun- 
dred and forty years after the foundation of Rome. 

Now, if the Greeks and Romans, our masters, 
and two of the most spirited and sensible nations 
of the earth, began their history at so late a period, 
and if our northern nations had no historian before 
the time of Gregory of Tours, can any one pos- 
sibly believe that vagabond Tartars, accustomed to 
sleep on the snow, or the Troglodites, who hide 
themselves in holes and caverns, or a tribe of 
wandering Arabs, robbers, straying about among 
mountains of sand, could have had their Thucy- 
dides's and their Zenophons ? Could they possibly 
know any thing of their ancestors ? What degree 
of knowledge or learning could they have acquired, 
before they possessed, and inhabited, towns and 
cities, and had drawn thither and cultivated the 
arts and sciences of which they were, previously, 
in utter ignorance ? 

Suppose the Samoieds, or the Nazamons, or the 
Esquimaux, were to present to us their annals, 
antedated for many ages, and filled with wonder- 
ful and astonishing feats of arms, with a long con- 
tinued course of prodigies and miracles, surprising 
to human nature, should we not laugh at and 
ridicule, those poor savages ? And if a few indi- 
viduals, lovers of the marvellous, or interested in 
their belief, should torture their minds, to throw 



FIRST WRITERS OF HISTORY, ETC. 317 

an air of probability over narrations so romantic 
and foolish, should we not pity their delusion, and 
ridicule their vain efforts ? And, if to their absur- 
dities they were to add the insolence of an affected 
contempt for the wise and learned, and the cruel 
persecution of those who doubted (what they 
could neither understand nor believe) the truth of 
their relations, should we not consider them the 
most execrable of men ? If a Siamese were to 
come and relate to me the metamorphoses of Sam- 
monocodom, and threaten to burn me, if I made 
any objections, or expressed any doubts, in what 
way ought I to act towards this Siamese ? 

The Roman historians tell us, to be sure, that 
the god Mars begat two children by a vestal 
named Ilia, in an age when Italy had no vestals ; 
and that a she-wolf nourished and fed these chil- 
dren instead of devouring them, as has been al- 
ready observed ; and that Castor and Pollux fought 
at the head of the Roman armies ; and that Cur- 
tius solemnly threw himself into a gulph, which 
instantly closed over his head ; but we do not find 
that the Roman senate ever condemned to death 
those who expressed any doubts of those prodigies. 
The people in the Capitol were allowed freely to 
canvass and ridicule them. 

There are many events recorded in Roman his- 
tory, which though very possible, are by no means 
probable. Several learned men have already called 
in question the adventure of the geese which 



318 FIRST WRITERS OF HISTORY, ETC. 

saved Rome, and also that of Camillus, who is 
said to have destroyed the whole army of the 
Gauls. The victory of Camillus certainly shines 
brilliantly in Titus Livius ; but Polybius, a more 
ancient historian, and much more a man of state, 
than Titus Livius, says directly the reverse. He 
relates that the Gauls, fearing an attack from the 
Vaneti, set out from Rome, laden with spoils and 
booty, after having concluded a peace with the 
Romans. Which shall we believe, Titus Livius, 
or Polybius ? We shall certainly have our doubts. 
May we not also, with great propriety, question 
the truth of those tortures to which Regulus is 
said to have been subjected, by being shut up in 
a barrel whose sides were every where filled with 
large iron spikes ? This species of death is cer- 
tainly very remarkable and singular. It is also 
very singular, that this same Polybius, almost a 
contemporary, who may be said to have been on 
the spot and privy to every transaction ; who has, 
moreover, written, in so superior a style, the his- 
tory of the wars between Rome and Carthage ; 
should pass over in silence, so extraordinary and 
important an event ; and which would have been 
some justification of the bad faith of the Romans 
towards the Carthaginians ! Can we think it pro- 
bable, that this people would have dared to violate, 
in so barbarous a manner, the rights of nations, in 
the person of Regulus, whilst the Romans had in 
their hands many of the principal citizens of Car- 



FIRST WRITERS OF HISTORY, ETC. 319 

thage, upon whom they could have taken ample 
vengeance ? 

Finally, Diodorus Siculus relates in one of his 
fragments, that the children of Regulus having 
very ill-treated some Carthaginian prisoners, they 
were severely reprimanded for their conduct by 
the Roman senate, and made to observe the rights 
of nations. Now, would not the senate have freely 
granted this just vengeance to the children of Re- 
gulus, if it were true that their father had been so 
basely and cruelly murdered at Carthage ? The 
story of the tortures of Regulus gained strength 
with time, and the general hatred against Car- 
thage made it to be currently believed. Horace 
chaunted it in his odes, and no further doubts 
were entertained upon the subject ! 

If we cast our eyes over the first pages of 
French history, we shall perhaps find matter 
equally obscure, romantic, and disgusting. It will, 
at least, be difficult for us to attach any credit to 
the adventures of Childeric, and of a Roman cap- 
tain, elected king of the Franks, they not having 
previously had any king. - 

Gregory of Tours is our Herodotus ; admitting, 
perhaps, that he is not quite so amusing and ele- 
gant as the Greek historian, were the monks who 
wrote subsequently to Gregory, more enlightened, 
or more veridical ? Did they not frequently lavish 
the most disgusting praises on the basest and 
worst of characters, but who had given them lands 



320 FIRST WRITERS OF HISTORY, ETC. 

and possessions ? And, on the contrary, did they 
not cast the most opprobrious reflections on the 
memory of wise and virtuous princes, but who 
had given them nothing ? 

We are well aware that the Franks who invaded 
Gaul, were more savage and cruel than the Lom- 
bards who seized upon Italy, and the Visigoths 
who reigned in Spain. We observe almost as 
many murders and assassinations in the annals of 
the Clovises, Thierries, Childeberts, Chilperics, 
and the Clotaires, as in those of the kings of Judah 
and Israel. Nothing, assuredly, can evince 
greater ferocity than the annals of those barbarous 
times ; nevertheless, we may be permitted to 
doubt the cruel and singular death, said to have 
been inflicted on the aged queen Brunehaut. She 
was nearly eighty years of age when she died in 
613 or 614. Friedegaire, who wrote about a hun- 
dred and fifty years after the death of Brunehaut ; 
that is, about the end of the eighth century, (and 
not in the seventh, as erroneously reported in a 
chronological abridgment) assures us most posi- 
tively that Clotaire, a most pious prince, and fear- 
ing God, humane, patient, and of a cheerful dis- 
position, had the queen Brunehaut paraded round 
his camp seated on a camel, and subsequently tied 
by the hairs of her head, an arm, and a leg, 
to the tail of a wild mare, which dragged her vio- 
lently along the roads and highways, dashed her 
head in pieces on the stones, and tore her in 



FIRST WRITERS OF HISTORY, ETC. 32] 

pieces ; and that subsequently, the fragments of 
her body were collected, and burnt to ashes. This 
camel, and wild mare, and a queen eighty years 
old tied by a leg, and the hair of her head, to the 
tail of this wild mare, we cannot avoid pronoun- 
cing to be things of very rare and uncommon occur- 
rence. It is perhaps rather difficult to conceive, 
how the small portion of hair which persons of the 
age of Brunehaut generally have, could be at- 
tached to the tail of a horse ; and particularly 
when an arm and a leg are at the same time tied 
to it. But we shall now ask how it happened, 
that after putting her to this cruel death, she was 
interred in a handsome tomb at Autun ? The 
monks Fredegaire and Aimoin say so ; but these 
monks are somewhat different from our Humes 
and DeThous. 

There is also another monument, erected to the 
memory of this queen in the fifteenth century, in 
the abbey of St.Martin at Autun, which she found- 
ed. In this sepulchre was found the remains of a 
spur, which was reported to be the very spur 
used and applied to the flanks of the wild, or 
untamed mare of which we have spoken. It is 
a pity they did not also find the hoofs of the ca- 
mel, upon which the queen was insultingly parad- 
ed around Clotaire's camp ! Is it not more proba- 
ble, that this spur may have been inadvertently 
placed there, or rather, as a mark of honour ? For 
in the fifteenth century, a gold or gilt spur was 



322 FIRST WRITERS OF HISTORY, ETC. 

considered a great mark of honour. In a word, is 
it not reasonable and proper for us to suspend our 
judgment on so strange and singular an adventure, 
so badly verified, and standing, as it does, upon so 
very weak a foundation ? It is certainly true that 
Paquier says the death of Brunehaut " had been 
predicted by the Sibyls !" 

The whole of those ages of barbarism were also 
the ages of horror, and of miracles ! But, are we 
bound to believe every thing which the monks 
have written ? They were almost the only per- 
sons who knew how to read and write, whilst even 
Charlemagne could not sign his own name ! They 
have favoured us with the dates of a few great 
events. We believe, with them, that Charles 
Martel beat the Saracens, but that he killed three 
hundred and sixty thousand of them in battle, is 
quite another matter. The number strikes us to 
be somewhat large. 

They say that Clovis, the second of that name, 
became insane : the thing is not impossible : but 
that it pleased God to afflict him with this disorder, 
as a punishment for his having taken an arm of 
St. Denis from the church of those monks, to 
place in his own chapel, we should pronounce to 
be very improbable. 

If we had only such idle stories as these to re- 
trench from the history of France, or rather from the 
history of the Franks and their mayors, we might 
be constrained to read it. But how can we en- 



FIRST WRITERS OF HISTORY, ETC. 323 

dure the gross falsehoods with which it is filled ? 
We read of the besieging and taking of towns, 
cities, and fortresses, which never had existence. 
There was nothing beyond the Rhine but little 
towns without walls, defended by ditches and the 
palissades of the pious. It was not until the 
time of Henry the Fowler, (l'Oiseleur) about the 
year 920, that Germany began to have walled and 
fortified towns. In fine, it is with regret we add, 
that the whole of the details of the history of those 
times, are little better than so many fables ; and 
what is worse, of fables not only tedious in detail, 
but injurious in their tendency. 



324 



CHAPTER LIU. 

OF THOSE LEGISLATORS WHO HAVE SPOKEN IN 
THE NAME OF THEIR GODS. 

Every profane legislator, who has had the bold- 
ness to declare, that the laws which he promul- 
gated were dictated to him by the Divinity, was 
evidently a blasphemer and a traitor : — a blas- 
phemer, because he calumniated the gods; and 
a traitor, for enslaving and subjecting his country 
to the entertainment of his own proper opinions. 
There are two sorts of laws ; the one, natural, 
common to all, and useful to all — " Thou shalt 
"not rob, nor kill thy neighbour; — thou shalt 
" behave with duty and respect to the authors 
" of thy being, and who have watched over thy 
" infancy ; — thou shalt not ravish the wife of 
" thy brother, nor bear false witness against him, 
" nor injure him in any way, — but thou shalt 
" assist him in all his wants and necessities, that 
" thou mayest in thy turn deserve to be assisted 
" by him." These are the laws which nature has 
promulgated from the Japan Isles to our western 
shores. Neither Orpheus, nor Hermes, nor 



PROFANE LEGISLATORS. 325 

Minos, nor Lycurgus, nor Numa, required that 
Jupiter should come in clouds of thunder to an- 
nounce those truths which are engraven on all 
hearts. 

If we had ever come in contact with one of 
those distinguished mountebanks, in the public 
squares of the city, we should have cried out to 
them vehemently, " Forbear! and do not thus 
" compromise the Divinity, by endeavouring to 
" deceive us into a belief that he came down 
"■ upon earth to teach that, which he had pre- 
" viously instilled -into the minds of all, and with 
" which, of course, all are acquainted ; your ob- 
" ject, no doubt, is to make it subservient to 
" some other purpose ; you wish to take ad van - 
" tage of our consent to eternal truths, to extort 
" from us our consent to your usurpation : we 
" therefore denounce you to the people as a blas- 
'■' pheming tyrant." 

The other sort of laws are of a political nature : 
laws, purely civil, and for ever arbitrary ; which 
sometimes establish the Ephori, and then consuls ; 
at others, a Comitia by hundreds, and again a 
Comitia of all the tribes; — sometimes an Areo- 
pagus, or a senate ; and then aristocracy, demo- 
cracy, and monarchy. It would evince a very 
slight knowledge of human nature, to entertain, 
for a moment, the least doubt, that any profane 
legislator could ever have established any of those 
laws in the name of the gods, with any other view 



326 PROFANE LEGISLATORS. 

than the promotion of his own interest. At- 
tempts of this kind, to deceive mankind, have 
their origin entirely in private and interested 
views. 

But were all profane legislators rogues and 
deceivers? No, — assuredly not ; for, as at pre- 
sent, we find in some of our legislative assemblies, 
great and upright minds, — men, who propose 
things useful to society at large, without any pre- 
tence of their having received them by revelation, 
or miracle ; so, also, among the legislators of old, 
we find many, who have instituted admirable laws, 
without attributing them to either Jupiter, or 
Minerva. Such was the Roman senate, which 
gave laws to Europe, Asia Minor, and Africa, 
without deceiving them : and such, in our days, 
was Peter the Great; who could, with much 
greater facility, have imposed upon his subjects, 
than Hermes upon the Egyptians, Minos on the 
Cretes, or Zamolxis upon the ancient Scythians. 

)^ 



FINIS. 



Printed by Littlewood and Co., Old Bailey. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

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